


Scarlet's Wolf

by LionessOnYourBack



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmate, Familiars, I don't believe in Canon, M/M, Soulmates, familiar
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2018-08-16 23:55:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 36,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8122513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LionessOnYourBack/pseuds/LionessOnYourBack
Summary: Everyone is born with a familiar to help them find their soulmate.  So what, you ask, because you've heard this story before? That familiar didn’t represent that newborn in any way, it represented their soulmate’s soul.





	1. The Cheetah and the Wolf

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alicat54c](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicat54c/gifts).



> This is a gift for AliCat54c. Loves you~
> 
> It was briefly posted earlier this week under a different title but the chapter wasn't finished yet. So if anyone spotted it and thinks it looks familiar, that is why.

Everyone is born with a familiar to help them find their soulmate. So what, you ask, because you've heard this story before? That familiar didn’t represent that newborn in any way, it represented their soulmate’s soul.

The family of this new life cannot see the familiar only the baby. Likewise the baby is the only one that can hear it or touch it. Until they find their soulmate, but you had guessed that already, hadn't you?

Some familiar's can choose their own names early on in their lives, others wait until the soulmates meet and some might never pick a name at all simply going with whatever nicknames their human picks for them. 

This brings us to a little boy named Leonard Snart, who doesn't know what life has in store for him yet. His sister hasn't been born and his father hasn't been arrested yet, but little Leo still has bad feelings about his father because his familiar has bad feelings about him. 

“My hackles go up every time he comes up from the basement, Leo. i don’t like it.”

“His papers are down there, you know he says he’s just working when I ask him.”

“But he gets angry with you for asking, that’s why I asked you to stop asking him,” his familiar says one night, chirping a bit with nervous energy as it paces all around Leo’s room. A smile tugs at Leo’s lips and he tries to hide it behind the little book he’s reading.

Leo's familiar is a cheetah, still a cub the way Leo is still a child, so when it tries to snarl or growl it still comes out more as chirps than anything else. He's trying to be quiet tonight because his father has company over that upsets his familiar, and the cheetah's hackles had been up all evening, even after they'd gone upstairs to get away from the men. 

Leo sets the book down and reaches out to the big cat, the cheetah moving quickly to the small circle of the boys arms, and he buries his face in familiar's side and breaths deeply, the cat curling around him. They both breath a bit easier like this, when they can touch the other, knowing that they will always have each other…and someday, Leo thinks, his soulmate and another familiar.

It is a scene that would play out hundreds of times, staying quiet and hiding from his father, changing only slightly once Lisa is born. 

Things change when Lewis decides that Len, because it’s Len now and not Leo, will go on heists with him because his hands are small enough to fit into places grown-ups hands cannot. The cheetah hates it but follows along and stalks about watching out for Len the way his father clearly is not.

Len and his familiar are a very good team. The same cannot be said of the crews that Lewis pulls together for the heists and eventually one of them goes south and Lewis blames Len for it even though it wasn’t his fault. They manage to evade capture from the police, but when they get home Lewis ties Len’s hands together.

“You nearly cost me everything tonight, you ungrateful piece of trash!,” Lewis yelled as he tugged on the bonds around Len’s wrists. “No son of mine is going to rely on some damn fool familiar for comfort for what’s coming,” he snarls in Len’s face as he walks off to go get something else.

Len’s face is ashen as he looks at the cheetah, not that he can see much because it is pressed up against his chest, one forearm wrapped around his shoulder. Len can feel it’s heart beating wildly against his own chest, or it might be his own for all he knows.

Lewis comes back then, loud foot falls sounding harsher for all of Len’s panic. With out warning something strikes Len’s back and he cries out in shock, squeezing his eyes shut and bowing his head forward. It is the wrong thing to do all around.

Lewis snarls out another, “no son of mine!” and reaches forward and grabs ahold of Len’s hair and pulls his head up and then brings the belt back down against Len’s back.

The cheetah shifts it’s position so that it can press it’s cheek against Len’s face, forearm wrapping more securely around Len’s shoulder.

“You’re doing just fine, Len. There’s nothing wrong with seeking comfort form familiars, mankind has been doing it for thousands of years! Just a little longer, can you stay strong just a little longer for me, Len? I’ll stay right here with you, I’ll never leave you!” the cheetah says as the beating continues. It’s started to purr against Len’s front, he can feel the vibrations of it, hear the soft sounds of it even over the harsh sounds of his father hurting him.

When Lewis was done he left Len there, hands still bound together, and now laying on the floor with his back either bleeding or covered in welts. The cheetah continued to speak softly to him and coax him to shift his hands out from under him, though Len wasn’t sure what good it would do him. He watches through tear filled eyes as his familiar extends its claws, claws that have never been able to touch anything before, and he watches as the cheetah slowly starts to scratch through what ever it is that his father has tied him up with.

Still sniffling Len asks quietly, “when do familiars start to touch things that aren’t their humans?”

The cheetah’s ears are flat back and its hackles are up as it continues it’s task. It takes a long while before it replies back just as quietly, “when we need to be more.”

The reply sounds broken to Len’s ears, like the big cat wanted nothing more in the world than to not have told him the truth, or at least part of the truth.

As soon as his wrists are free Len wobbles forward and wraps the big cat in the best hug he can manage and the cheetah hooks it’s chin over Len’s shoulder, but ultimately doesn’t move to hug him back. Len takes in a breath to ask why at the same time the cheetah starts purring again and Len feels the difference from when it had been purring before while Lewis had been beating him. This feels more substantial, like there’s more to the cat now than there had been 30 minutes ago. New tears leak from Len’s eyes and he takes a deep breath, knowing he has to get up and clean everything up before his father gets back or wakes up, which ever happens first.

He stands up, the cheetah bracing him on one side, and they get to work.

When Len is old enough to leave on his own and get away from Lewis, the cheetah is the one that talks him into it, even though it knows how bad it'll be for Lisa. It knows once Len gets away and gets the means, he'll come back for Lisa...somehow. And he does, eventually. Len didn't like the feel of running away though, even if his familiar had argued, successfully, it's pros versus its cons, he wouldn't be doing it again if he could help it. 

Len is in and out of jail after he escapes his father. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes not. His cheetah always goes looking for the weak points in the guards schedule, it's eye for detail as good as Len's own. It gives him hope for his soulmate, whom ever they are. 

Len's in a new safe house when it happens, his cheetah is sprawled across him, easy as you please, when it jolts and its head snaps up eyes wide. Len's never seen it look like this before.

He reaches both hands for it's head as he asks, "what's wrong?"

The cheetah lets out a terrible yowl Len is sure no actual cheetah can make and fear flashes through him, is something wrong with his soulmate? If they died he would never know because the cheetah would continue to exist since it came into existence when he was born, so while it was ultimately a piece of his soulmate the cheetah was still his. The back of his mind, almost hysterically, supplies that it's like joint custody of this one piece of the soul.

The cheetah moves then, pulling Len from that train of thought and burying it's head, as best it can for a full grown cheetah, into his chest. Len wraps his arms around it and threads his fingers through the fur, fingernails scratching where he can.

"Scared, lightning, gone, mom, no, dad, no! MOM!" The cheetah is babbling as it cries, actually cries against his chest. Len has no idea what to make of it. He's never heard stories of a familiar connecting to their actual soul until after they met them, he didn't know it was possible. Whatever happened to his soulmate tonight must not have been good at all, and that rankled Len.

First he couldn't protect Lisa (though he nearly had enough to go back for her) and now something had happened to his soulmate and he still didn't know who they were. They had better still be alive...

\---

A small boy sat bundled up at the Central City Police Department, off in a corner where he had gone to hide. The CCPD had originally been looking for him, but one of the officers had reasoned that he was still in the building and just needed to calm down and a bunch of strangers stomping around and shouting for him was probably not helping.

The boy didn't recognize the officer from what he could see, but he was great full for them.

Huddled next to the boy was a slate grey wolf, as big as the boy himself, his head resting on the top of the boys head. 

"We can't stay here much longer."

"We can't go home, they took Dad."

"Joe said that we could stay with his pack, didn't he?"

The boy remained silent.

The wolf pulled it's head off of the boys to look him in the face and said, " Barry Allen, we are not staying in this corner and hiding forever from the man in the lightning! He is a faster runner than you anyway."

Barry turned red for a second, looking the wolf in the eye and then deflated, "why do you always have to be right?"

"I think things through with my head, while you think things through with your heart. I imagine when we find my human you'll make quite the pair," the wolf said, what passed for a smile on a long muzzle plastered on its face.

"I wish I could find my soulmate now and live with them and not Joe, he didn't believe me about the man in the lightning," Barry sighed.

The wolf sighed too as it got to its feet and wiggled to get behind Barry. Barry laughed at the feeling but obliged when the wolf gave him a push to get him up off the floor.

"Do you think they're nearby?" Barry asked, trying to stall before they moved back to were anyone could see them.

"You know that's not how a familiar works. We aren't like a compass that can point you towards your soulmates. We're there so that in the long run you don't miss each other out right," the wolf replied. He sounded just as upset by this as Barry looked.

"We're going to be the first to do it differently," Barry said and smiled at his wolf.

"Oh, and what makes you so sure?" came the reply.

"We saw a man running around in lightning! Think of what other impossible things are out there, what other impossible things might actually be possible!" Barry leant forward and wrapped his arms around the neck of the wolf, "you'll see, we're going to do the impossible too."

He wasn't wrong in the long run.

Once he had come out of hiding and Joe had gotten things sorted out, he had taken Barry home, the wolf sitting next to him, head resting atop Barry's again as both looked out the window as the familiar neighborhood passed by. Barry could almost trick himself into believing that Joe was taking him home.

"Don't do that to yourself, it'll hurt more in the long run and there is only so much I can do to comfort you," the wolf said softly.

Barry wrapped an arm around it and sighed, turning his head to look out the front of the car and sighed.

Joe glanced at Barry from the corner of his eye as he slowed to a stop at a stop sign before going through the intersection.

"I know I have no right to ask since I'm not your father, but if you can, what kind of animal is your familiar?" He asked. Most kids never told anyone but their parents what their familiar was, it was a piece of their soulmate after all, so it was special.

Barry wrapped his other arm around his familiar, glad that no one could see anyone else's animals but the souls they were linked to. He shook his head and buried his face in the wolfs fur. 

Though to Joe it looked like he was just putting his face into open air. Joe smiled and wondered when Barry would realize that others could still see his face when he tried to hide it in his familiar's side. He certainly wasn't going to break it to the kid today. Better, by far, to let him have this safety net for now. He would tell him before school started back up in case it became a 'thing.'

\---

Iris had stayed up and waited for her father and friend, so she was up and at the door when she heard the car pull into the driveway. The wolf only just barely managed to brace Barry from behind so that the two wouldn't topple over when Iris rushed out to hug him and say how sorry she was that things had turned out this way, but that Barry was going to be with them now, so they could play all the time, and wouldn't that be fun!

Barry tried to smile, and it worked a little bit, but the reminder that he could never go home had him crying again and pulling away from Iris to twist around to reach for the wolf.

Joe looked on in awe as he watched as Barry's shirt shifted as the familiar moved to comfort the crying child. He was also surprised to see that Barry's tears weren't rolling down his cheeks, but instead being absorbed by the familiar. He had never seen such a strong reaction before and had to wonder just what had happened that night at the Allen residence for the normal bond between a child and their familiar to deepen so. He hoped Henry hadn't gone after Barry after he had killed Nora. Joe didn't think he could handle that if it was the case.

He ushered both children inside and shut the door. He sent Iris up to bed and walk with a still crying Barry to their furnished guest room that would now be his room. He sighed as he looked around, it was definitely geared to an adult staying there, or a child for just one night. He'd have to fix that later.

He set Barry's bag down on the bed and then picked up Barry and set him down on it too. A moment later a weight settled next to the child and Joe couldn't help but stare.

Barry sniffled and turned his head to look where Joe was to see if the wolf had sat on something it shouldn't have. 

The wolf looked back at him for a moment before shifting to rest its head atop Barry's.

"Are you sitting on something?" The boy asked. Joe startled a bit because he hadn't been expecting Barry to saying anything.

"I am sitting on the bed."

"Was there anything next to me before you sat down?" Barry sighed deeply as he wrapped his arms around the wolf, accepting the comfort it offered just by sitting next to him. It might not be able to touch others, but Barry still his familiar was the best guard dog ever.

"There was nothing there when I sat next to you."

Barry remained silent for a moment longer before partially turning to look at Joe, "are you ok? You have this weird look on your face and you were looking at were my familiar sat down."

Joe looked again at the depression on the bed next to Barry, then at the way his hair was being flattened on the top of his head. He took in how the boy's arms didn't reach all the way around the familiar as he hugged it to him. He thought for a moment how best to put what he was about to say.

"Barry, I know this is going to sound unbelievable, but I can see the things your familiar is touching...I think as long as you are touching them too." He waved his hand at the bed and at the top of Barry's own head. "I watched the bed settle as it sat next to you, but not dip when it got on. The hair on the top of your head is flat to your skull when the rest of it is fluffy.

"Familiars aren't supposed to effect the physical world around them Barry. They are only supposed to effect their human and their humans soulmate." Joe said, sounding and looking a bit lost.

Barry stared back, eyes wide, "why is mine able to then?"

"I'm not sure, but we'll find out, I promise."

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the fastest writer in the world, but I am gaining confidence with it.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed chapter 1!! Check back in in maybe 3 months, I might have some more. Sadly I am not kidding on the time frame.


	2. The Storm and the Lightning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time shifts forward, as it generally does. Some of their Familiar physics are explained, Barry is happy until he's not, Len is level headed until he's not and the Accelerator happens because nothing else can until a certain someone in yellow screws that up so that he can get the ball rolling so that he can go home...or so he thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, 3 months huh? I, uh, was pretty shocked when all the alerts for the comments and kudos started to pop up in my inbox I can tell you that. When I started writing this for Alicat I thought /maybe/ a few other people might read it, soulmates seem to be a thing. I know i like reading about them. You all kind of blew my mind.  
> I kept going back to read the comments over and over again because I felt warm and fluffy and I'm deeply moved by them. So thank you!

Chapter 2

_Observation Notes by Bartholomew H. Allen, High School years summary (sort of):_  
_It took me a while to really wrap my head around my familiar being able to touch things around me and have others see it too. We didn’t even start testing it out really until the bullying from Tony got to the point that I was getting in trouble for actually skipping school. Joe was really upset with that phone call from the office._  
_When we did start testing, it was because Tony had me shoved against the lockers, again, just after the bell so no teachers were out to see, and I reached out with one hand to burry it in Nor’s ruff (He’s decided he’s a he for now and he would like a name, but Nor’easter is too long, so he has very kindly agreed to Nor..for now. Nor’easter’s are pretty fascinating actually. They’re these micro-scale cyclones that occur along the upper East Coast of the US and Atlantic Canada. They get their name because the strongest winds are going counter clockwise from the off-shore air masses and that has them travel from the northeast to the south west over…what? Right, sorry, rambling again. Nor, remind me to delete this later.) as I listen to Tony start in on picking on me._  
_It doesn’t even take a moment before Nor reaches up and places a paw on Tony’s arm and that has Tony snapping his mouth shut, which has me looking down at what Nor is doing, which is now dragging his claws across Tony’s arm. Red marks are appearing, not scratches, but definitely something no familiar should be able to do._  
_Tony cries out, sadly doesn’t let go of me, and shifts his body. I’m still staring at his arm, too shocked at what Nor was ale to do to someone that isn’t me and certainly not my soulmate, so I don’t see that the shift Tony made was to haul back so that he can punch me. In the face._  
_The black eye is hard to explain, but the red welts on Tony’s arm are harder and I certainly wasn’t helping him. Any time Tony came after me after that Nor and I tested. Which was admittedly the dumbest way to test, but it was for science!_  
_It all ultimately ended in senior year, the middle of lunch, with all the witnesses in the world…but no teachers. Seriously, why was there never a teacher around when you needed one? Tony had me pressed face first onto one of the tables and Nor had hopped on to the table trying to get at him. All of this only worked though if I was the one actively touching Nor, so him pressed against my side and back to get at Tony wasn’t working, and Tony had both of my arms pinned behind my back. I’m not sure if he had figured it out too or if it was just dumb luck right then, but his timing, as always, sucked._  
_Nor was literally howling mad by the time I managed to slip one of my hands free and get it wrapped around one of his hind legs. I couldn’t see Tony, but I knew he could tell that something had changed in the moment. Nor had started a fresh howl when my hand had connected and Tony’s grip on my remaining arm became bruisingly tight, I’m certain that he could hear Nor howling. Nor shifted and Tony screamed and pulled away from me. When I twisted around I saw that he was cradling his bleeding arm and looking at me like he’d never seen me before. Nor was refusing to let me up until he was able to make sure I was ok, but we were drawing a lot more attention now, and that is, of course, when the teachers showed up._  
_Unsurprisingly they didn’t believe me when I said that my familiar had scratched Tony, but they couldn’t blame me for it because too many people had come forward and told them that I was still face down on the table when it happened._  
_Joe still grounded me for getting in another fight at school._  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Barry was running late, again, but it wasn't his fault! Not entirely this time. He'd missed the last train out of Starling City and then been kidnapped by the Green Arrow's team. The Green Arrow who had turned out to be Oliver Queen! Barry was still in a bit of shock. He'd helped save Oliver's life even, though the rat poison hadn't been a popular option, especially when it had seemed that Oliver had started hallucinating. Oops...

But yes, Barry was running late getting to CCPD from the first train into Central City from Starling, there had been signaling issues on the lines, or something. Not Barry's fault at all, but still late. How was this always Barry's luck?

He couldn't even complain to Nor because the wolf had stayed back at his lab in Central because he'd thought it was a wild goose chase. Again. Though it had also been a test to see if they /could/ get this far apart from each other in case they needed to. Barry had a separate notebook just for familiar observations that he always carried with him.

The only side effect that he could make a note of was an odd coldness in his hands. He'd noted that he normally kept at least one hand on his familiar at all times if he could, simply because he could, so maybe that was where his and Nor's bond was strongest? He'd have to ask the wolf once he stopped chastising him for time mismanagement again.

Barry got out of the elevator and onto the main floor for his level just as Singh was coming through the bullpen doors. He narrowed his eyes at Barry.

"One, don't you ever do that again. Two, you had better be glad that a detective from Starling called and vouched for your help up there. Three, whatever you left in your lab go and stop it because no one can walk passed it without feeling like they're being watched. Even people's familiars have been complaining to then, Allen, so whatever you have running up there, Stop. It." He pointed sharply to the stairs that lead to Barry's lab, and Barry just nodded sharply before he bolted.

The door to his work space was shut tight, an actual "BEWARE" sign taped to the door. He pulled it down and opened it. Sitting just inside was Nor, hackles quickly going down now that Barry was in front of him. Barry dropped everything in his arms and wrapped them around the wolf.

"Has your bad mood actually been affecting everyone that walks past the door?!" He says in surprise. He would have to add this to his journal later.

Nor wrapped one fore paw tightly around Barry and hooks his head over his human's shoulder, "one of them came in and tried to take something that you hadn't filed yet. I didn't recognize him at all. Just the audacity to mess with our territory like that while you aren't here!"

"You're actually snarling," Barry said, amused. "But how were you affecting so many people /and/ their familiars while I was gone?"

Nor pulled back and looked at him, head tipped to the side, considering. "I was probably only affecting their familiars, if one of us is upset enough others around can pick up on it and..."

"But no one seemed to care how upset I was that night..." Barry interpreted, the start of anger in his voice.

Nor leveled a look at him for interrupting and Barry leveled a look right back, unapologetic for having done so, going one step farther and cocking an eyebrow at his wolf. Nor licked his face, knowing full well that the saliva would remain and Barry would be forced to clean it off.

It was Barry's turn to snarl as he pushed Nor away to stand and get some paper towels.

"So you weren't upset that night?" He asked as he rubbed his face dry.

There was a huff from behind him, but he didn't turn, "why do you think no one found us in that corner? Their familiars were stealing them away from it. I was beyond angry that our pack was taken from us Barry, and I know you know that."

Nor's tone was cold, and when Barry did turn around, the wolf was facing away from him as well. Barry rubbed his hands over his face and went back to his wolf, kneeled down and wrapped his arms back around his neck.

"I'm sorry, what can I do to make it up to you?"

"You know what I want."

"You also know I can't afford to get that on a Forensic Assistant's pay scale."

"We could always borrow it with out the intent to return...it's not like you wouldn't know how to cover your tracks."

"You are a terrible soul, and I did this for you last time I was in the 'dog house'."

A utterly pleased emotion rolled through Barry and he knew that it was coming from Nor and he just sighed and buried his face in the wolf's ruff.

"Could you at least act like 'borrowing' is bad?"

"It is a terrible thing and should never be done...without supervision."

Barry wanted to bang his head on his desk, but that would involve getting up, and he had been away from his familiar for several days, the farthest physical distance that they had ever been, and he didn't feel inclined to move just yet.

The moment he heard foot falls rushing down the hallway he was up and moving though, which was then followed by him up and moving out the door and into Joe's car and to a crime scene for the rest of the day. Nor by his side.

The evening was supposed to be spent at the S.T.A.R. Labs Particle Accelerator with Iris and then bed, but it didn't quite do that way.

Barry and Nor had ended up back at his lab after a mugger had tried to take Iris' purse, Detective Pretty Boy had saved the day and Barry had failed in front of Iris.

And now there was a crisis at the accelerator, a literal storm, a crash of thunder, a bolt of lightning and Barry knew no more.

—————

Leonard Snart had noticed a great many things that his familiar could do to anything he, himself, was touching. Such as the ropes the night his father had beaten him and Chain had sliced through them with his claws.

Leonard was also not amused with his familiars choice of name. The big cat claimed it was from a weather documentary that had been on one night in one of the prisons Leonard had been in, something to do with Chain Lightning, but Leonard had asked the feline if he wasn't trying to refer to a “ball and chain” since the were in a prison. The cold shoulder he'd received for the next 40 hours was worth the scandalized look on the cheetah's face though. Chain broke at the 40 hour mark and had slunk back up to Leonard's side and pressed himself there and purred, Leonard for his part had smirked and done little more than lean into his familiar.

Leonard had been sitting on his bunk in his shared cell with Mick at the time and he and Mick had been in the middle of a conversation when the cat had come up to him. Mick had gone silent the moment they'd made contact. Leonard cocked his head to the side and looked at his partner, waiting for him to start up again.

“Wa’s that, Snart?" Mick asked, gesturing next to Leonard, to the side his familiar was on.

Leonard didn't move to look, just cocked his eyebrow in turn and said, "how do you mean, Mick?"

"Something sat down next to you, I can see it's butt print clear as day right there," Mick huffed, annoyed. "Is'at your familiar? How's it doing that? Mine's next to me and it ain't moving the bed."

Leonard sat stock still for a long moment, face as impassive as always before picking up a hand and gesturing away from himself, "a magician never reveals their secrets, Mick."

"You're so full of shit, Snart."

Simple fact was that Leonard still didn’t know why Chain could effect things he was touching after all these years when no one else familiars could and it bothered him, no matter how helpful it could be. He knew, though, that it stemmed from how his father treated him as a child, and that bothered him more.

There was a time in a different prison, away from Mick, where a guard had decided that he didn't like Leonard's attitude and was going to do something about it. Chain didn't like that one bit, so the moment the guard put his hand on Leonard, Chain sank his teeth into the guard's leg.

The moment the guard let go of Leonard, Chain phased right through him. The guard never went after Leonard again and no one else in that prison did either. Word ended up getting out about the incident and Leonard got a handy reputation that no one should ever lay a hand on him.

At least from people that traveled in those circles anyway. The people in Central City had not gotten that memo by the time Leonard eventually made it back. He actually couldn't wait to play with the families to see what he and Chain could do do them.

The man himself was currently leaning over a table with maps of Central City spread out over it, schematics for several models of armored cars, lists of tow trucks and their maximum capacities, and a few other things. Chain was was boosted up next to him, look up at him instead of down at the items on the table.

"Don't go picking fights."

"Fights I can't win, sure, but when was the last time you and I lost a fight?"

"Len I'm serious! Let's do this job and leave Central. I hate being back here. Too many bad memories and we never make good ones when we roll through."

"We were in Central that night..."

"I don't care that we were here that night all those years ago when I had that fit and long range connected to my soul! We never found out what exactly happened to a man and a woman so we were never able to narrow it down to look properly. And the only thing at all that happened in /Central/ that night was to some kids parents! Which you ruled out due to age differences," the cheetah hissed, tail lashing back and forth.

Len sighed and ran his hand from the back of his head forward. In reality neither of them liked being here thanks to the memories of Lewis, and if it wasn't for Lisa, Len would never come back at all. That's what he told everyone that asked anyway.

Truth was, ever since the night Chain had connected, Len had just felt pulled back to Central every time he was gone for more than six or so months. So he would come back, collect a crew, plan a heist to the second, do the dead and roll back out. CCPD hated him because he was so clean about all of his heists here.

It was a good feeling to know that even their best CSI's couldn't pin anything on him. Members of his crews on the other hand were not so lucky, but none of them had ever flipped and ratted Len out. He never broke them out of the Heights, but they didn't have it as bad as they could have.

The heist Len was planning for now was one that needed a lot of set up and people that knew the streets of Central better than average. He needed a crew of people that had grown up here like he had if he had any chance of getting what he wanted.

Len felt something hit his leg and he looked down, Chain was looking up at him, a flat expression on the "tear" stained face.

"I swear to the maker, if you were counting seconds or thinking about that stupid diamond while I'm trying to be upset with you, then I will go find somewhere else to watch the accelerator coverage tonight!"

Len's lips quirked up and he reached down and placed a hand on Chain's head.

"No you won't, who will you talk to then if you do that?" Len smirked as he tweaked one of Chain's ears.

"Myself, obviously, since you don’t like the damned thing. Maybe if I'm lucky my soul will be just as excited and we can bizarrely connect again," the big cat said, pulling away from the suddenly stock still Len.

There was a long beat of silence and then, "Do you think..."

"No, Len," Chain said, cutting him off. "Nothing is going to happen ever again that will connect me to my soul until you meet them. Thirteen years ago was a fluke that no one you spoke to could explain. Please, it's time to let it go."

Len sighed and sat down. Had that really been thirteen years ago already that he and Chain had a glimpse into his soulmates life?

"We keep coming back to Central because I feel drawn to it when we're gone for to long," he said instead of saying one way or the other about letting go of the past connection Chain had made.

All of the cheetah's attention was back on Len and he came over to place a forepaw on his leg.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I thought at first you might feel it too."

Chain was silent, resting his head on Len's other leg, before speaking again, "familiars have never acted like compasses. If anything we're more like close range proximity detectors. Often times times though meetings between soulmates are still oddly left up to chance. I never felt the pull you felt and I can't tell you why you are feeling it, Len."

Len leaned his head back to rest against the back of what he was sitting on, glad that it was padded, and brought his hand up to carefully run his fingers over Chain's head. “They’re here, I know they are.”

Chain huffed and gently pressed his claws into Len’s thigh, “you hopeless old romantic.”

“I’m so glad that no one else can hear you, you would ruin me,” Len snorted and ruffled his hand atop Chains head as he pulled himself into a proper sitting position. “Fine, lets go watch this accelerator thing get switched on. I’m sure it’ll be the height of excitement tonight.”

Chain sniffed and trotted ahead of Len, “you’re right, it should really kid tonight into a higher gear.”

A short pause followed before Chain flicked his ear, and curled his tail and Len snorted unattractively.

“That was a terrible pun, never do it again,” he said has he reached for the remote as he sat on the sofa in the safe house’s living area. Chain hopped up and practically lay on top of him. “You’re also not a kitten any more, don’t you think you’re getting a bit old for this?”

Chain shifted more of his weight onto Len’s lap and said, “nope,” as Len found one of the channels covering the event.

“…just told everyone to evacuate! There’s been a malfunction with something in the accelerator’s core. I repeat, they’ve just told everyone to evacuate!” the new reporter was saying, frantically looking over her shoulder at the building behind her. Above the building storm clouds could actually be seen building up, lighting crackling in them.

Len and Chain looked at each other and back at the screen, both leaning forward without thinking.

A strange shockwave could be seen pushing out from STAR Labs quickly followed by a rumble as something, somewhere collapsed, and from the camera’s angle they could see a hand full of bolts of lightning start to strike down upon Central City as the power started to go out in a ring pattern, spreading out from the lab itself.

The broadcast ended before they could see anything more and Chain turned to Len to say something but instead his eyes went wide and his mouth opened in a silent scream as all his fur stood on end. In the next instant he was on the floor, what could only be described as lightning shocking it’s way across his fur and up towards his head, before fading around the corners of his eyes.

Len was quickly on his knees, unsure of what to do, if he should touch his familiar or not, hands hovering just over CHain’s lifeless form. In the end, Len couldn’t bare not to touch him, so he reaches out with one hand to feel for Chain’s pulse. It takes longer than he’s used to, but he does find it. It’s beating fast like a humming bird trying to escape a predator, but it’s there all the same. Len sags back in relief.

He waits a moment to see if Chain will come around on his own, but when it is clear that he won’t he reaches out again and tries to wake him. He tries for an hour and still Chain remains unconscious. This is not what Len wanted when he’d asked if Chain would ever re-connect with his soulmate again…gods, Len’s soulmate! He looks back at the dark TV and thinks that something must have happened to them, but then, even if they’d died, nothing should have happened to Chain…so it’s something else. Something else has happened to his soulmate.

Len pushes himself to his feet and goes to find his phone. He’ll worry about his soulmate later. He needs to worry about his familiar now. He needs to not have a panic attack right now about how Chain isn’t moving at all. He needs…

A grunt is all the noise he gets when the call is answered.

“Hey Mick, I need you to come back to Central earlier than planed…I’ll explain when you get here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'll get snow balls thrown at me for this, but, see you in 3 months! =D 
> 
> Harry Potter reference might unintentionally make their way in to the next chapter because I'm going to the Wizarding World in February, and Team Flash is a bunch of nerds anyway, so I figure I can get away with at least a few references here and there, right? Right! \o/ Let me be delusional! 
> 
> Let me know what you think of Nor and Chain's names and how they came about?


	3. The Wolf and the Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time in-between Barry's 9 month nap. It doesn't go quite the way anyone was expecting it to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by the letters: I,T, C, and W. For my iPad on my Train during my Commute to and from Work...for just 2 days. Day 3 was heading to the next state over to shop for presents. Muses, WHY!
> 
> It's a Winter Miracle!

By the time Mick got to Central after the accident the city's power was still out, even on the outskirts were Len's safe house was.

No one answered the front door, and it was locked tight. Mick didn't feel like trying to pick the lock just then and he figured if Snart was home he wouldn't appreciate Mick burning the door, and possibly the whole house, down just to get inside. So Mick went around back and tried that door, still locked. He waited another moment to see if he'd be let in like a normal human being, but when it looked like that was becoming less like a reality he took a step back, and kicked the door in.

"Snart!" He called as he stepped over the threshold, but got no response. He looked at the table and saw all the plans were still laid out, so that meant Snart was still here, man didn't just up and leave with those out in the open.

He closed the door as best he could and went farther into the house. A quick search brought him to the back bedroom where he found Len, one hand pressed flat to the bed, the other curled under his head as his upper body was laying on it. That isn't what caught Mick's attention though, no what got his attention was the imprint of a body on the bed that aught not to be there at all.

"Snart?" Mick said again, more cautiously this time as he edged into the room.

Len didn't even shift as he said, "Chain hasn't moved since the accident. He connected with our soulmate and this happened."

The man sounded broken to Mick, almost as bad as anytime he'd heard him talk about his father hurting his little sister. Then again, who wouldn't be upset if their familiar was hurt and they thought their soulmate was hurt too.

The imprint on the bed was freaking Mick out so he tried to get Len to leave the room, tried to find out the last time he'd eaten, showered, anything. Len didn't have an answer, didn't even know what time it was. He'd stopped counting. He also wouldn't leave the room, and when Mick bodily lifted him up and carried him out he'd gone right back the moment he could.

Admittedly that had been after a half hearted fight between the two because Mick didn't want to hurt someone who was already hurting so obviously.

So Mick called Lisa.

In the end four days, seven hours, that phone call to Lisa and a new black eye for Len found them all sitting at the kitchen table. The papers neatly cleared away and plates and silverware set up for a meal.

Len felt like death warmed over.

"I don't think you needed to hit me so hard in the face, Mick," he deadpanned, not picking his head up from how he had it tipped back looking up at the ceiling.

"You certainly weren't listening to anything else we were saying Lenny," Lisa said from over by the stove. "And besides, he seems to have knocked some sense into you, at least for now, so win/win!"

Mick snorted into whatever he was drinking at 3am.

"I hate you both," Len said as he pulled his head up right and glared at both of them.

"Whatever, sunshine," Mick said. "You called me, remember. Don't be prissy that I actually came here like you told me to."

"I'm family, Lenny, you can hate me all you want, but I know it's really love," Lisa sing-songed.

Len still hated then.

"So," Lisa started as she brought eggs and bacon over to the table and let them dish it out themselves, "what's the story with your familiar. Mick was a bit thin on the details."

Len sighed and snapped a piece of bacon in half before he said, "we had just turned on the news broadcast of the accelerator and they were already telling people to evacuate the area, we saw the explosion and the start of the power going out and the lightning strikes and then our power went out, even out here. Chain turned to say something to me..."

Mick snorted into his eggs, subsequently actually snorting one as he jerked his head too far down to try to hide his ill concealed laugh and Len had to wait as he got his coughing fit under control.

Lisa quirked an eyebrow and said, over Mick's coughing, "you named your familiar after a 'ball and chain'? That's bad even for you, Lenny."

"He picked it himself, thank you very much. And it's from chain lighting that he saw on some stupid weather documentary that a prison had left on one night years ago. If your both done judging us, may I proceed?" Len said making a rude hand gesture at both of them.

Mick made one back and Lisa stuck out her tongue. They were the picture of maturity, Len thought to himself.

"At any rate, Chain didn't even say anything before he seized and fell to the floor, literal, visible static bolts racing up his fur and vanishing around his head. I couldn't wake him no matter what I tried. I can't even begin to think what must have happened to my soulmate for this to have..."

Lisa interrupted this time with, "why do you think anything happened to them at all. Familiars don't act or react to their other halves until they've met before, so unless /Chain/ has met your soulmate and not told you then it's highly unlikely that anything has happened."

Len remained silent and looked at his sister like she was missing something and the gears in her head snapped into action.

"Unless he's done something like this before?" She said unsurely.

Len nodded, "once before, 13 years ago."

"Jesus, Snart," Mick said. "What happened then!"

"Something happened to my soulmates parents back then. There was only one story in any of the Central news papers that matched, but the kid was 11. Nothing else seemed to fit nationally and I didn't bother to look internationally after that." Len told them.

It was surprisingly Mick who leaned forward and asked, "do you remember the name?"

"Allen."

Mick thought for a moment and then nodded, "Doc Allen up in the Heights, he's been there 'bout 13 years. Must'a been him you read about."

"Is there anyone in any jail the two of you don't know or know of?" Lisa asked.

"No," the pair said together.

Lisa sighed and shook her head. "So, we have a name. This makes our search easy. We look up Doc Allen's kid, find out what happened to him four days ago and we can put this to rest. Easy as you please," she smiled brightly at Len.

This did not sound like a well thought out plan at all.

It was ridiculously easy to find out where Allen's son was, he hadn't moved once since the accident. Central City General Hospital.

Len stood outside a set of nondescript doors that would let him slip in and check on the kid with ease.

A kid who had now passively come into Len's life twice, and both times involved incidents with Chain connecting with his soulmate. Maybe the universe was trying to help him out? Len snorted, no one ever tried to help a Snart out for free.

He pushed the door open and went to find the room for Barry Allen.

The kid was hooked up to more equipment than he had any right to be, and the air in the room felt charged with electricity. Len glanced up and down the hall before stepping in and closing the door.

He thought he heard a sound on the far side of the bed and moved to look, but there was nothing there. He stood at the foot of the bed and look down at the young man that lay comatose from a lightning strike.

"You have the devil's luck kid. Dad gets blamed for killing your mom, not that Doc did it, I don't think that man could hurt anyone. Murdered me in chess though, no mercy. And now here you are, struck by lightning and, according to this chart here, doused by chemicals from your own lab," Len paused and read more of the report and shook his head. The Devil's luck indeed.

Barry Allen, CSI for CCPD...oh the irony if this kid was somehow his soulmate. Not that he saw any familiar in the room, but it was entertaining to think about now.

He put the report back in it's place and went back around to the side of the bed closest to the door and leaned down so that he was very close to the comatose young man's ear.

Len then whispered, "here's the thing kid, this is the 2nd time some event in my life has had me look you up. The first time any one can wave away as nothing. The second time starts to look a little like coincidence. Now I don't see your familiar, so I'm on the fence for us being soulmates, but I think there's something there. If you come into my life again I will be looking into you in a much more thorough way..."

Len stood up straight, another flicker of movement in his periphery made him blink and look away from the young man on the bed, but again there was nothing there. He quirked an eye brow and started to move around the bed again.

He didn't get very far though as the heart monitor started to escalate, as if the kid was running as fast as he could, but the number kept climbing and Len didn't like the way it looked so he turned back to the door and made his exit.

He was several doors down when the alarm sounded for a patient going into heart failure and the power started to flicker and go out. Len stopped and watched as several doctors and nurses rushed into Allen's room and he felt all of the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It felt utterly wrong that the kid should be going into heart failure, sure his heart was beating fast just a moment before, but with numbers as high as that and still he hadn't crashed in the short span that Len had been in the room...Something wasn't adding up for Len and he didn't like it.

He left the hospital and went back to the safe house. Lisa and Mick were waiting for him, Lisa's mouth already opening to ask if the kid had been his.

He waved her off as soon as he had the door closed.

"Didn't see any familiar in the room, surely with him being knocked into a coma by a bolt of lightning the beast would be right by his side," Len said as he sat down next to Mick and tipped his head back. He wanted to go to his own familiar and check on him, but he knew that if Chain didn't respond to him he would spiral downward again.

"Did you touch him?"

Len picked his head back up and looked at his sister like she was insane.

"So that's a no," Mick said with a snort next to him.

"Lenny! Even if you can't see the familiar right away, touch is supposed to be a clue too!" Lisa said, sounding exasperated and looking at Len like he was the insane one now.

Len rolled his eyes and tipped his head back again. "What good would it have done? Kid's in a coma, works as a CSI for the CCDP and if the report hanging off his bed was anything to go by, then one Detective J. West is his guardian and/or adoptive father. You know what I am?"

"World's best thief, even rated by Interpol?" Lisa quipped.

Len finger gunned at her because he had to give her that. He wondered how good of a CSI Allen was anyway...

"You gonna look into the kid then," Mick asked.

"Nope," Len said. "Happenstance happens. If he comes into my life a third time though, soulmate or not, kids going to be mine. One way or another."

Lisa snorted and Mick rolled his eyes. Len knew he was a possessive jerk. Upstairs a round and fuzzy ear flicked.

\----------

_B.Allen Observational journal, quick notes:_  
_Have to make this quick, going out with Iris to see the Accelerator be switched on soon if I can get the tests to run faster...by force of will._  
_So, this observation came just after I got back from Starling City. Nor had been effecting peoples familiars while I was away, and that was the farthest we'd ever been from each other. The only other time he claims that this has happened is the night Mom died and Dad was taken away. So...maybe in my extremes (distance and emotions) Nor can effect other familiars. He certainly doesn't seem to be able to do it normally. Believe me, he was trying at the crime scene today!_  
_...And back..._  
_I'm sure if he could have intimidated Iris' mugger he would have too. Time to wrap this up, we've got to finish watch the Accelerator coverage from my lab at work. Semi long story about that mugger._  
\---

Nor sat on the far side of Barry's bed in the hospital. It had been six days since the accident and the lightning bolt and still Barry remained still. He had just shifted off of the bed when he heard the door click softly open but whomever it was didn't enter right away which was strange. All the hospital staff and Joe and Iris always came in right away when they opened the door.

There was movement and the door closed just as quietly and Nor quickly moved, not into the line of site like he normally would, but partially through the wall and behind the chair in the corner, he wanted to be able to keep an eye and ear on Barry after all, and he wasn't sure what was making him hide instead of stay in plain site. The room felt charged with something the way it didn't around every other human Nor and Barry had ever come into contact with. Still Nor remained out of site.

The man that had come into the room came to the foot of the bed and looked to where Nor had just been, almost as if he had been able to see him. The man stopped though and turned his attention back towards Barry.

"You have the devil's luck kid. Dad gets blamed for killing your mom, not that Doc did it, I don't think that man could hurt anyone. Murdered me in chess though, no mercy. And now here you are, struck by lightning and, according to this chart here, doused by chemicals from your own lab," the man said before he paused and read from the report. Nor could hear the papers shifting.

More than that though, the man's voice had struck a cord with Nor and the wolf had sat down, still half in the wall behind the chair, a thunderstruck expression on his face. Soulmate. This man was Barry's soulmate and Nor wasn't showing himself. Was actually actively /hiding/ himself! He tried to get up and move, but remained seated where he was.

The man had moved around the bed to whisper into the ear of the unconscious Barry now, and Nor was too preoccupied with his own predicament that he wasn't paying attention to everything the man was saying now.

"...If you come into my life again I will be looking into you in a much more thorough way..." Nor registered the man saying just before he stood back up. No, no, he might leave! Nor was finally able to stand and move away from behind the chain, but something still held him back from revealing himself to this man. He wanted to howl in frustration, but his jaw wouldn't work either.

The man had started to come closer though all on his own, so maybe he could still find Nor, there might still be a chance. Nor's heart rate picked up, and at the same time so did Barry's. The monitors catching the man's attention and making him stop and look at them. Nor wanted to bang his head on the floor, especially since he was starting to realize that he might be keeping himself hidden precisely because Barry was in a coma. Nor mechanically turned to face his human and a terrible thought occurred to him. What if he couldn't reveal himself to Barry's soulmate because Barry himself wasn't conscious enough for higher brain functions? Or maybe because he'd just been protecting Barry for so long at this point. Or that there must be something that they hadn't tested for all those years ago because they had never thought about a situation like this. There were just too many variables now and no way for Nor to test on his own.

Nor's attention was drawn to the monitor when it started beeping faster and faster, something no human heart should do without crashing, but Barry's just kept escalating. The man left then and closed the door behind him and moments later the doctors and nurses rushed in because the monitor was saying Barry had crashed. The power was going out and no one had any idea what was going on.

Nor didn't feel like he was passing on, so he sat calmly on the chair in the corner and waited for the legion of humans to get on with it, his mind on Barry's soulmate that he had let get away.

He needed to figure out how to get a name to the face he'd seen, but with Barry comatose that meant he wouldn't be able to touch anything. Which meant he had two options. Option 1: wander around Central City until his paws fell off and hope for the best. Option 2: go to CCPD and wander around until he found someone looking at mug shots and hope for the best, because really, Nor thought to himself as he hopped off of the chair and walked through the door, what kind of man snuck into a hospital room in the middle of the night, made next to no noise, and left quickly when it looked like he might be discovered?

Nor padded out of the hospital and started his trek back to CCPD, it wasn't a short walk after all.

From the night Barry's soulmate snuck into his hospital room to the day Nor found out his name it had taken him six months, three days eleven hours and Nor had refused to count the minutes after that because that seemed a little obsessive, even for him.

Leonard Snart.

Nor was just trotting back into the hospital, ears up and quite a pleased look on his face, when he saw HIS BARRY being taken out on a gurney. Joe not far behind, and a man in a wheelchair next to him. They were speaking in hushed tones and Joe didn't seem too pleased. Nor waited until they came level and then turned and walked with the gurney out of the hospital.

The ambulance they all got into took them to, of all places, S.T.A.R. Labs. Nor boggled a bit as he followed Barry's gurney inside. They were greeted by just two people, only one of which seemed to be a doctor because she was the only one to help the paramedics set Barry up in his new room.

There continued to be commotion around Barry for a while, but Nor had hopped up onto the bed and lay next to him, knowing that no one would see him effect the bed because Barry wasn't actively touching him.

He rested his head just under Barry's chin and said, "I met your soulmate, pup. I didn't stop him or show myself to him though, and for that I am sorry. It was like I was the one in the coma instead of you. It took some time, maybe too long, but I have his name. It's Leonard Snart, you're not going to like how I found it though."

\----------

Across town, almost on the outskirts of the city, a pair of eyes snapped open in a dark room. They quickly looked around, and when they saw no one they dashed out, a strange trail left in their wake.

Len sat in the kitchen with Mick and Lisa, a game of poker going between them when the atmosphere shifted and they all looked up at each other, the hairs on their arms and the backs of their necks standing on end.

A flicker of light had Len turning to look behind him. He only made it half way to facing the hallway before he was bowled off his chair and knocked flat on his back. Mick and Lisa were on their feet and around the table and hovering over him, unsure what to do.

Len, for his part, was just starting up, godsmacked, at open air.

"Lenny?" Lisa said hesitantly.

Len moved then, wrapping his arms around nothing and pulling them as tight as they would go, only stopping when something stopped them and Len buried his face in whatever was in his arms.

"Is'at your familiar, Snart? He's awake!" Mick exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened," Chain said as he pulled back and shifted to rub his head under Len's chin and purred.

"It's ok, it's ok," Len said softly. "I'm just glad you're ok. I was so worried when I couldn't wake you up."

"He got hurt, we were more connected now than I've ever heard a familiar and their other half being. I wasn't able to learn his name though," Chain said, his ears shifting back, pressing the top of his head to Len's chest.

Len sighed and ran his fingers through Chain's fur soothingly, "it's ok. We'll find him. At least we know it's a him now that we're looking for."

Lisa sat down next to Len and put her hand on his shoulder, "he's ok then, your familiar?"

"Yea, yea, he seems fine," Len said looking up at her, he hands still moving through thin air.

Mick huffed and sat down heavily near Len's feat and leaned against the wall. "So, what we gonna do about your soulmate, Snart?"

Len's hands stilled in their motions on Chain's back and he sat up, forcing the cheetah into his lap.

"Did he wake up when you did?"

Lisa and Mick waited as Len got his answer, glancing at each other and then subtly at their own familiars. Listening to someone talk to their familiar could be so awkward sometimes, when you only got half of the conversation.

"Then we'll just have to wait," Len said, and then he smirked and it edged into an actual smile for a moment. "Actually, that diamond isn't going to steel itself you know."

Though Mick and Lisa couldn't see it, Chain shifted and hit his head on the floor and Len burst out a bark of a laugh as he ruffled the cheetah's ears.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOW I will see you in 3 months, that is to say, March. =D;; Happy Holidays, no matter what you celebrate, i hope the end of this year for you can bring you lots of smiles, warm hugs and good cheer! \o/
> 
> Also, I unintentionally had Nor call Barry "pup" the way Len call's him "kid" in the show and I didn't realize it until I was editing it. Someone please take Nor away from me. Nor will, however, continue to call Barry "pup" until time in memorial now, and I'm dragging you all down with me.


	4. Good Morning Scarlet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well someone finally comes back to the land of the living. Len meets someone new.

Bartholomew H. Allen observational notes:  
My familiar has been walking in and out of "my" room since we got to Joe's while the door has been closed. The door to my room at home was always open so I never noticed it before. But they can sit on my bed or the chair in my room just fine.  
They say it's a matter of perspective. Vertical things can be assumed to be doors, even if they aren't, like walls and the foot board of my bed, and horizontal things can be assumed to be sitting things, even if they aren't, like my desk or the science teachers work surface at school.  
I set up two chairs in the dining room with Joe's help and put a big board between them. My familiar walked right through it while it was standing up. Then Joe helped me lay it on top of the two chairs and they were able to jump up and sit on it. It was pretty cool.  
Joe was looking at me like I'd been telling the story of the man in the lightning again. You'd think he'd never tried to test this out with his own familiar. I wonder if other kids don't when they're my age?  
\---

 

Three more months had passed, and in that time Nor had wandered all over S.T.A.R. Labs and then left and wandered around Central and a part of Keystone.   
One can only sit around for so long when they know their charge is going to be okafter all.

In a small section of Keystone Nor found several very high end shops that had items of all kinds geared to familiars, many of which he personally thought were a crime against the familiars. Who wanted to walk around in a bright pink argyle cardigan or a midnight blue parka. For that matter, what kind of familiar would need a parka anyway? Not that anyone but the human or familiar would see it once it was put on, and didn't that just rankle the designers, but the laws of Nature said no one got to see someone's familiar unless they were your soulmate. So yes, Nor thought the clothing stores for them were a bit on the worthless side, though Barry had argued that they weren't worthless to the pairs that liked them. Gods did Nor miss his human...

The next shop over though, that's the one he kept going back to. It had toys in it and claimed that the familiar could play with them when their human was too busy to play with them. There was a particular red and blue ball in a locked case in the back of the shop that Nor had his eye on and would need to show Barry...if his pup ever decided to come back to him. The brat was just being stubborn now.

Nor spent his time casing the shop, learning that even though it had some very high price tags it had some pretty gods awful security. Barry would be able to get in no problem to 'borrow' the ball for him.

Two months after Nor had started coming to the shop he noticed a car sitting at the corner of the street with two men inside, but it was the cheetah that he could see outside the driver's side door, perched on it and leaning in, that had him stopping dead in his tracks.

Soulmate.

The cheetah's head suddenly snapped up and over to where he was and in a shock of pale gold lightning the cat was in front of Nor, a soft exclamation from one of the men in the car following it and then Leonard Snart was was following quickly after with the other man right behind him.

Nor swallowed thickly, this wasn't how first meetings were supposed to work at all! Never mind that Leonard had already found Barry and just didn't know it.

"What's your name?" Leonard asked, looking right at him.

Nor swiveled his ears, pretending to listen for something that wasn't there, buying time before he answered, "Nor."

"Who you talking to, buddy?" The other man said.

"There's a familiar right here that Chain and I can see, it has to belong to our soulmate," Leonard said, turning to look at the man, his expression an odd mix of excitement and wanting to remain neutral.

"Ignore Len's partner, he's been jumpy about Len finding our soulmate since I went into the coma eight months ago, but I woke up two months ago and we've been trying to find out what we can about him since. Slow going all around though, but we only had one potential and he vanished just about the time I woke up apparently, so we don't know if he's still in a coma or not," the cheetah, Chain, rattled off at Nor. Definitely part of Barry's soul.

"Partner?" Nor asked and looked at the other man, his ears going flat back. It wasn't uncommon for humans who didn't find their soulmates to find others in the same boat to bond with, especially when they started to get older. Joe had done it young though because he and his wife had made a connection, and Iris was a wonderful result from that, but Joe's wife died and now Joe was alone again.

Nor bared all his teeth at this partner and that got Leonard's attention again from whatever he'd been saying to the man.

"Hey now, what's wrong?" Leonard asked, holding out a hand to try to calm Nor down.

"You have a partner! My human has been waiting for you and you have someone else?" Nor snarled. "I won't let you near my pack, ever, now."

Leonard narrowed his eyes and Chain let out a pained noise. Leonard moved to the big cat and placed a hand on the back of the cats head in a calming gesture. Nor recognized it as something Barry did to him and his chest ached for a moment, missing how often Barry used to touch him.

"You mean he isn't here right now?" Leonard said and glanced around. "How is that even possible? The farthest Chain's ever been from me has only been the length of a building."

Nor snorted, "wouldn't you like to know."

"You can't keep me from finding him," Leonard said, anger threading through his steady tone. "He's my soulmate, you are a part of me! I will have what is mine!"

"The pack protects their own," Nor said to Leonard. "And until you find him, we are not yours. Your /partner/ is behind you!" Nor snapped his fangs for emphasis.

Leonard turned to look over his shoulder at the other man, an incredulous look on his face, "Mick is my partner in /crime/, you mongrel."

Man and wolf bared teeth and fangs at each other and the longer it went on the more each of their hackles went up the more Nor conceded that he was part of this man's soul. Which just meant he could never back down. Barry was going to either hate this game that Nor had just decided on or love it, because if his partner was just a fellow criminal, then this was a game now. If Nor ever found out anything different...well, he was going to be pissed.

"Hope you like to run, Leonard Snart, because you're going to be doing that a lot soon," Nor said, a wolffish smirk spreading over his face. "Come on, come on, catch us now. You can't catch us any how," Nor taunted with a truly ridiculous lyric from Barry's grade school days before turning and bolting through the wall of the familiar toy store. He made a sharp turn to hide behind a wall just in time to watch the cheetah bolt past.

Nor blinked at the lightning trail and wondered that if the cheetah could do that after six months, what was Barry going to be able to do when he woke up?

\----------

Len went back to the car, Mick hot on his heels, and Chain not that far behind because, in the end, he couldn't be that far away from Len, and they both wondered just how far Nor could be from their soulmate or if he'd been bluffing.

He slammed the door, started the car and drove in silence back to the safe house. Casing the shops in the little familiar area of Keystone be damned tonight.

When they got back to the safe house, Len stormed inside, picked up the first thing that was within reach, and lobbed it across the room. The gentle thump of the pillow was not the noise Len had wanted to hear, but that's what he got for not looking at what he was grabbing.

"Buddy, what did the other familiar say that has you loosing your cool like this? You never get this worked up unless Lisa's involved," Mick said, still hanging back by the door, shocked.

"That mongrel said he was going to keep my soulmate from me because Chain called you my 'partner' and he picked the wrong meaning," Len all but snarled and then took a deep breath and held it. Mick was right, loosing his cool would get him nowhere. 

Chain, the traitor, was lounging on the sofa, easy as you please. Belly exposed and waiting for Len to come over to him like he'd done something good.

"And why do you look so pleased with yourself," Len asked as me moved over to the low table in front of the sofa and sat on it. Mick snorted and sat on one of the nearby armchairs, now used to the ebb and flow of Len's conversations with Chain. Len had never really spoken to his familiar all those times they had ended up in jail together. It just wasn't the thing to do to show a potential weakness like that.

"Because, Len, Nor is you!" The cheetah chirped. "All over protective of his family and willing to do anything to keep others away from them. Look what you've done for Lisa! She's so good she's not even in the system! And now Nor is protecting my other half because he doesn't know the full story on you."

Chain flipped over so that he was sitting up right and bridged the gap between them, bracing on the table, his cleat like claws digging in for stability, and he head butted Len.

"I'm sorry that I upset him. I didn't know what else to call you and Mick. You've just always been partners to me, and in my head I know Mick loves fire more than anything else so that our soulmate has nothing to worry about..."

Len huffed and brought a hand up to cuff Chain on the head lightly, "probably could have called Mick my brother and the beast would have believed you."

"Don't flatter yourself, Snart. You don't look this good," Mick said as he started to pat his pockets down and dig in the inside pockets.

"If you're going to play with fire, Mick, do it in the kitchen or out back with the bucket of water near you. I don't want to loose this safe house to the CCFD," Len said with a put-upon air.

Mick flipped him off and got up, heading to the back of the house.

"Now what?" Chain asked.

"Maybe we should look into Allen again...," Len said thoughtfully.

"But there's nothing to really suggest that he has anything to do with us still. Sure he was in a coma for six months and then vanished. For all we know he could be dead and they just moved him quietly because he was a badge," Chain said softly.

Len looked at his familiar, the wide eyes, the ears that shifted so that one was angled towards where Mick had gone and one was solidly on Len and the long thick ended tail that hadn't stopped moving since he woke up.

"Our soulmate's alive, Nor proved that tonight. If it turns out that Allen isn't our soulmate and he's really gone...well, I'd need to see the body because I don't think that kid'd give up without one hell of a fight."

Chain head butted him again, "you are so strange. Why was I born with such a strange and possessive human?"

Len smirked back at him and shrugged, he opened his mouth to reply but snapped it shut when he realized he was about to say 'a pack protects their own.' He groaned and buried his face in Chain's ruff, startling the big cat.

"We're going to find that wolf again and then the game is on," he said into Chain's back.

Chain chittered out a laugh and wrapped a paw around Len, wobbling a bit from still being stretched out from the sofa to the table.

\----------

Nor was laying on Barry's bed, nestled between his body and his arm, head resting on his chest, right under his chin and half dozing. The woman, Caitlyn (Dr. Snow around anyone that didn't work for S.T.A.R. Labs) had somehow managed to talk Cisco (Cisco Ramon, dude, and don't worry, we'll take good care of your boy!) into playing something other than Lady Gaga for 15 minutes (but only 15 minutes Cait! His Facebook profile says he listens to her!)

Nor didn't care one way or the other, but the song on now was very familiar and he couldn't place it. He's sure though that if Barry were awake he'd know it in a heart beat.

The wolf sighed and blew out against Barry's neck, stupid human taking his stupid time waking up, making Nor's life boring as hell. There were only so many times Nor could wander around Central and Keystone, and he's stopped going to the familiar toy store after the run in with Snart and Chain, just in case.

The music built a bit, getting ready to crescendo and Nor felt something on his side. He opened his eyes but stayed still otherwise. He felt Barry's hand dig itself into his fur again and he felt himself sink onto he bed.

"What is that!" He heard Cisco exclaim from the central hub and then heard the sound of Caitlyn's high heels.

Barry chose that moment to groans and sit up, his hand shifting along Nor has he did so, not that the wolf was complaining, he was just as touch starved for Barry.

"Why is 'Hedwig's Theme' playing?" Barry asked as a flurry of motion started from the pair for scientists trying to move around him.

Cisco talking to him and Caitlyn checking things and then holding up a sample cup saying, "I need you to pee in this."

Barry was off the bed and backing away from her as Cisco was saying, through gritted teeth, "not right now!"

"Look," Barry started, "thanks for what you did and all, but I'm fine now and I should go and..."

"You were struck by lightning and doused in your labs chemicals 9 months ago," Nor said following Barry into the main room just as Barry stopped in front of an oddly placed mirror.

"Lightning gave me abs?" He asked bewilderedly.

"How did you know that it was lightning?" Caitlyn asked, Cisco right next to her looking like he couldn't wait to hear this.

"My familiar told me. Is it true that I've been out of it for /nine/ months?!" Barry gestured back to the bed he'd gotten off of and then looked back at them.

"Your familiar is correct Mr. Allen, you have only been with us for three of those months though," a new voice said.

They all turned and saw a man in a wheelchair drive into he room and settle, watching them, an amused smile on his face.

"Dr Wells?!" Barry said in disbelief and then turned to look properly at the room around him.

"Yes, this is S.T.A.R. Labs, pup, now close your mouth and remember to breath properly before you embarrass yourself in front of him," Nor said as he came over and nudged his human.

Barry shimmied a bit to keep his balance, the others looked at him strangely, but that didn't stop him from leaning down and pushing Nor in turn. It felt so nice to touch his wolf after such a long time, even though he hadn't know how long it was while he had been in the coma.

"Are you playing with your familiar?" Caitlyn asked, leaning forward a bit.

"Yes, he and I have always been like this. I don't really give a damn who sees me interact with him, they can't see him and don't know what he is. We were born together so we should be together, why should we let the outside world dictate how we have to act towards each other, you know?" Barry said, cocking his head to the side.

"Finally," Cisco said, "I told you I wasn't the only one that acted and reacted to my familiar in social settings!"

Barry and Nor blinked and looked at each other, S.T.A.R. Labs was a strange place.

Before anything else could be said on the matter though, Dr. Wells stepped in, so to speak, "perhaps we could find Mr. Allen some clothes to wear before this conversation continues?" He arched an eyebrow and gestured a hand in Barry's direction.

Barry looked down and realized he was, in fact, still only in his underwear, Cisco snorted out a laugh and quickly left the room and Caitlyn turned an impressive shade of red and quickly went the other direction that Cisco had gone.

Nor moved in front of Barry and boosted himself up, placing his fore paws on Barry's shoulders and rested his head next to Barry's on one side. Barry reached out with both hands to keep him steady.

"Thanks," he said softly, knowing that Dr. Wells would actually still be able to see him clearly, but to Barry himself he would look covered when he looked down. The only reply he got from Nor was a rumble that he felt in his own rib cage.

Barry looked back over at Dr. Wells and saw the older man observing him and out of nervousness he opened his mouth, a long ramble of anything all set to spill out, but he wasn't given the chance.

"Is your familiar standing in front of you, Mr. Allen?"

"Yes..."

"Why is it doing that?"

"Preserving my modesty from my point of view."

Dr. Wells cocked an eyebrow at that and leaned back in his chair, Barry hadn't realized he'd leaned forward or when.

"Do you have any questions while we wait for Mr. Ramon to come back with those clothes?"

Actually, Barry did have some questions...

He found out that he was moved to S.T.A.R. Labs from CCGH because every time he went into 'cardiac arrest' the hospital experienced power outages that they couldn't explain. Dr. Wells told him that he'd gone to Joe and Iris when he'd heard about the, frankly, bizarre timing between the power outages and Barry's cardiac arrests and offered to have Barry brought to the Labs to be looked after. Joe had refused, saying that Wells was the reason that Barry was in the hospital in the first place.

It had taken Wells months and in the end he had had Caitlyn and Cisco go to the hospital too to see if they could talk Joe into it. Eventually the three of them had gotten through to Iris, who then got through to Joe and by then six months had passed of Barry being in a normal hospital.

Barry was kind of floored that the remaining members of S.T.A.R. Labs had fought so hard to try to help him, but at the mention of Iris all he could suddenly think about was leaving and going to find her to show that he was ok.

The trio had no chance of stopping him once he got that thought in his head and not long after he and Nor were back at his apartment, thankfully still his with all of his stuff still there, and he was getting changed into his own cloths and heading back out the door and on his way to Jitters, Nor by his side and his hand buried deep in Nor's ruff.

When they got to Jitters it didn't take long to spot Iris and also for Iris to spot Barry. They hugged and Barry told her he hadn't been awake for very long and that's why she and Joe hadn't gotten a call yet, so they shouldn't be too upset with S.T.A.R. Labs over that. 

Iris laughed at him and was about to say something else when the waitress behind her dropped her tray. Barry watched as everything around him shifted into literal slow motion, the sounds of the cafe were even distorted, but in the next moment everything was back to normal and Iris jumped and twisted around, asking if her co-worker was alright.

Barry blinked and looked down at Nor, but his familiar didn't seem to have experienced the same thing he did, which freaked him out more.

Iris turned back around and saw him looked at the fallen tray and asked if he was ok.

"Of corse, Iris, probably just not used to loud noises after being out of it for so long," he said, smiling brightly at her. She smiled back, pushing on his shoulder and told him he should go see Joe.

After they were back outside Barry took a less crowded path to the station so that he could talk to Nor.

"Just as I realized she was dropping the tray it seemed like, I don't know, time dilated or something, and everything slowed down around me, even the sounds Nor! I watched everything happen in slow motion until the last thing hit the floor and then everything sped back up. When I looked down at you you didn't seem to have seen it the way I had though," Barry said softly, in case anyone else was close enough to overhear him.

"You're right, I didn't see it that way, I saw it at...normal speed...," and Nor hesitated and glanced up at Barry, but the human had already been looking down at him so he'd been caught.

"What is it?" Barry asked, "have you seen something like this before?"

"Yes."

Barry stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and nearly had someone walk into him before Nor grabbed his cuff and pulled him off to the side and out of pedestrian traffic. They stood there for a moment, Barry looking down at his wolf and Nor uncharacteristically looking anywhere but Barry.

"Nor," Barry said softy, "please, tell me what happened while I was in the coma."

Nor's head dipped lower for just a moment and Barry knew he'd been right. Whatever happened, had happened while he'd been comatose.

Without looking up Nor said, "it started in your hospital room, not long after the accelerator accident happened. A man came in, snuck in really, and instead of staying out in the open I hid. He was your soulmate, pup, I know it as truly as I know you, and I didn't try to stop him from leaving."

Nor's head was hanging lower now and Barry knelt down and placed his hand on the top of Nor's head and softly massaged the space between the wolf's ears. Nor sighed into the touch and continued.

"It took months trying to find out who he was, because I figured there was only one type of person who would need to sneak into a hospital in the middle of the night. I was right. I saw his photo and name come up when one of the detectives were going mug shots for a case. He didn't have anything to do with that case, don't worry," Nor added quickly when he saw the look on Barry's face.

"He's almost as good at being a criminal as you are at being a forensic scientist, but I'm sure you're better at find the clues he'd leave behind."

Barry wanted to be upset at finding out that his soulmate was a criminal, and apparently a really good one at that, but the way Nor sounded worried him.

"Why did you sound so smug when you said that just now?"

"Because CCPD's files say that he leaves no evidence behind, so while he has a rap sheet it's all from his earlier crimes and not from anything in recent years. Even Interpol has files on him, not that I was able to look into them because no one in CCPD is curious at all," Nor huffed.

Barry sighed, great, not just a good criminal, an internationally good criminal.

"That doesn't explain why you've seen something similar to what I just saw in Jitters though," he said, quirking an eyebrow at the wolf.

"The second time I ran into him..."

"Second time!" Barry interrupted.

"It's nice to know that some things don't change," Nor said before he went on, "yes the second time. There is a shop over in Keystone that has toys for familiars..."

"Nor, no."

"Nor, yes. It's just borrowing with out the intent to return. You borrowed the last ball for me."

"And you lost the last ball in under a month. I had to listen to you whine and complain about it for nearly a year!"

"I still think Joe found it and took it away. But that is neither here or there right now, we're still going to that shop so I can show it to you. May I proceed with my story?"

Barry snorted at him and gestured for him to go on. The other people on the sidewalk had started to give Barry a wide berth to walk around him when it became clear to some that he was interacting with his familiar in public. Barry rolled his eyes at them.

"The second time I ran into him he had his familiar with him, Chain a cheetah...and his partner, supposedly in crime, but could be partners for other things. Both men are older and it isn't unheard of for people to find partners that haven't found their soulmates yet. He and I didn't see eye to eye on the whole 'partner' thing. I told him I'd never let him near you if that man was more than just his partner in crime and he said he'd find you no matter what. Game on I say. At any rate, Chain can run really fast, leaves a gold/white lightning trail behind him when he moves. He can't get too far from Leonard though, almost as if he's chained to him."

Barry was silent for a moment and then, "One, don't ever pun again, that hurt me physically. Two, 99% of familiars can't get out of their humans lined of sight, so the fact that we've been as far a part as Starling is the oddity not them. Three, did you really turn ME into a game of keep away from my soulmate? Four, are you telling me a piece of my soul has super speed?"

Nor was glad for the wide berth that the other humans were giving them at the moment, because surely everything Barry had just said sounded crazy to normal people.

"In order: no promises, we're not odd, it'll be fun, and yes. What you describe isn't normal, no one just changes perceptions like that. We should test it! See if you can run the way he can!"

"We might need some help with that," Barry said as he stood up and ruffled Nor's ears. "First we have to see Joe though. Iris has probably already called him to let him know I'm up and about and if I don't show up soon he might put out and APB on me."

Nor huffed as they started walking again, "he'd do it too. Silly, paranoid human."

"I was in a coma for nine months, could you blame him if he did?"

"Yes."

Barry laughed and buried his fingers in Nor's fur as they started back towards the station. The walk didn't take much longer and Joe was happy to see him when Barry walked into the bullpen, everyone was actually.

Barry's pit stop had lasted long enough that Iris showed up not long after he and Nor did and in the flurry of Iris showing up a man was also brought in by an officer. Barry watched as time slowed again and he saw the man go for the officer's gun. In a rush he dashed over, got the gun from his partial grip and cuffed him to the chair the officer had been trying to get him to sit down on and made it back to where he'd been standing, all with no one apparently having noticed that he'd moved at all.

Nor, however was not no one and he had noticed the quick motion and papers rustling. Felt the up-tick in his heart rate that he knew was somehow Barry moving and just looked up at his human when Barry looked down at him.

"You alright, Bar?" Iris asked after the commotion with the suspect calmed down some. "You seem out of it still. Maybe you better go home and rest or go back to S.T.A.R. Labs and have them check you out again?" She was giving Barry her worried face and he knew he didn't stand a chance against it.

"Don't worry Iris, I'll take care of myself, and," and he paused to place his hand on Nor, "he'll make sure I do the right thing too." Barry smiled at her and Iris smiled back and nodded. Barry made a hasty retreat from the station after that and down into the back alley where some of the squad cars were parked. After dashing here, there, and into the linens van, breaking several windows in the process, he decided it was best to go back to S.T.A.R. Labs after all.

"This is SO cool!"

"Cisco...," Dr. Wells said in a long suffering manner.

"Sorry Dr. Wells, but it's not every day you find out that someone can run this fast! I mean, how are we going to test it!"

"I have some theories," Dr. Wells said, "but I'll need everyone's help to make them realities."

Barry, Cisco and Dr. Snow (please don't call me Caitlyn) all nodded. Each excited in their own way to see what, exactly, Barry could do.

Turns out that what Barry could do was break his wrist at super speed, but have it heal in a fraction of the time it should. While Nor was not amused by his foolish human breaking his wrist in the first place, at least the recovery times would be quicker now.

Dr. Wells and Dr. Snow seemed to think this was some great leap for medical science, Barry breaking his wrist and it healing so quickly. Nor thought it sounded like they were looking at his human like a science experiment and his hackles were going up.

Cisco was the one to interrupt the conversation, "dude, what's that bad vibe you're throwing off?" He was looking at Barry when he asked it.

Barry tipped his head to the side and cocked an eyebrow in confusion for a moment before mouthing 'oh' and looking down. "What's wrong?"

"Wait wait, you mean all that negative energy rolling off you is actually from you familiar!" Cisco said. He looked dubious though, like he didn't want to believe it.

"Yea, my familiar has done this before, but normally not when I'm this close to him," Barry said and then looked back down to Nor. "What's wrong? Why are you pushing out like this?"

"They're looking at you like a lab rat and not like a human with rights, like your wrist breaking and healing because of the accident they caused is now their property," Nor snarled.

Barry's eyes went wide and looked up in enough time to see that Cisco had stepped back, mostly likely because his own familiar was being effected by Nor the most and was having him move away while Dr. Wells and Dr. Snow hadn't moved at all, blank expressions still on their faces. Which was a little strange to Barry because he hadn't met anyone yet who didn't react to Nor at least a little bit. It was off-putting to say the least.

He was about to say something when Dr. Snow bent down and picked something up and moved to stand closer to Cisco, murmuring quietly to what was in her arms. So her familiar was just as upset as Cisco's, but she had tried to remain stoic. Barry could appreciate that. 

Dr. Wells beat Barry to saying something first though, "Mr. Allen, could you please ask your familiar to calm down, they are upsetting my employees. The only ones to have stayed with me after the accident, thus their comfort is actually of great importance to me."

Barry waited for him to make any motion to interact with his own familiar, but when it became clear that he wasn't going to he turned back to Nor and knelt down in front of him, bringing a hand up to try to smooth him.

"It won't be like that," he tried to be vague so that the scientists around him might not catch on. "You have to calm down, you don't loose your cool like this if I'm near you."

Nor pulled his eyes off of Wells and looked at Barry and stared at him for a long moment before shaking himself and taking a deep breath. The tension in the room dropping in the same instant.

"I will protect you now the way I couldn't when we were younger. I'll figure out how, even if I have to end my self imposed game to do it."

"Atta'boy," Barry smiled and wrapped both arms around the wolf, hugging him tight. "Just don't do anything I wouldn't do," he whispered softly before he pulled away.

When Barry stood back up he saw everyone was staring at him. "What?" He asked, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You and your familiar have a very strong connection, and when it was upset it was able to effect our familiars, who in turn, were able to effect us. It's fascinating to see such a strong bond, to cause the fight or flight reflex to kick in in others with no clear threat visible," Dr. Wells said and then looked over to his employees who didn't look nearly as thrilled. 

"Well, maybe not fight or flight, maybe more unease," he amended with a chuckle. "I wonder, though, if it could become fight or flight?"

The discussion devolved from there over familiar dynamics and what they could and couldn't do. After an hour of that Barry took his leave, promising he'd be back the following day after work and so he headed home. Carrying Nor and running short distances so that his clothing wouldn't catch on fire.

Barry fixed himself dinner and landed on the sofa next to Nor while he ate, the wolf ending up sprawled in his lap before he was done. After that they sat in silence, Barry running his hands through Nor's fur, glad to be together again, just the two of them.

It was nearly midnight when Barry hauled himself up to go to bed and Nor followed behind with a devilish look on his face.

"So, let me tell you about that toy store in Keystone..."

Barry groaned and landed face first on his bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Barry did not know where to stop this chapter, so the muse said "toy store" and so...there we go. =D;; Barry is about to hate me lots. I'm kind of thinking you are too. And you've all been so nice! It makes me super sad. V_v;
> 
> See you in June! \o/


	5. That Toy Store in Keystone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It doesn't take long for Nor to get Barry to crack and go see that toy store in Keystone. Things don't go the way they thought they would.  
> Someone new shows up to spice things for our soon-to-be hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took a bit longer to get posted than the last few chapters. I threw my back out May 30th and have only been able to really sit up straight again this week. It's not been a very fun experience, but I'm a little more pain free every day, so there is that. =)
> 
> Thanks for being patient with me, and I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Observation Notes from B. Allen:  
Nor and I were in one of my physics electives, and he was playing with the ball that I had borrowed recently from one of the boys on...I'm not exactly sure which sports team. (I'm sure he won't miss it anytime soon.)  
Nor went to go walk through one of the glass displays the professor kept older experiments and knick-knacks in, but instead of it working like a "door" he walked face first into it, making everything in it rattle and a wave of snickering broke out. I'm not ashamed to say that I was also laughing, and he didn't drop the ball, so he couldn't yell at me.  
Our professor didn't miss a beat though, they simply said that whose ever familiar had walked into it shouldn't have had the toy in their mouth or hand when they did so, and if they are stuck then whomever is paired to them needs to get up and help them.  
I have never been so glad that Nor doesn't have opposable thumbs, I can only imagine what would have happened if he'd made it part way through and then the ball impacted.

Naturally after class, and for the rest of that weekend, we tested on our own what Nor could and couldn't go through when he had a familiar specific toy to carry around, or when he had a mundane object to carry.  
He couldn't go through anything with a human only object, and he could only go through wood with a familiar toy. Glass, plastic, and metal (and let me tell you how hard it was to find those things when no one else was around!) stopped him every time. We think it's because wood, even when treated, is still the most natural thing and everything else is too man made.

We /still/ haven't worked out the science behind the familiar toys and clothing that makes it vanish when humans let go and only familiars are touching them. Kind of frustrating, but Nor says either I'll figure it out, or I'll find another nerd to explain it to me. Why is my familiar such a pain in my ass sometimes?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Barry had re-acclimated to being awake again pretty easily, especially now that he had his new found speed.  
He would get up, now with Nor as his alarm clock, because the wolf refused to let Barry slip back into old habits of time mismanagement. Barry's new wake up call was the wolf leaping full body onto him a full hour before he had to be to work. Barry thought this was 1) rude, 2) hurt his ribs like breaking his wrist, 3) unfair because it took seconds for him to get ready and 4) sneaky as hell because all Nor was talking about was that forever damned toy store in Keystone!

Barry broke two and a half weeks into this new routine and slammed a sheet of paper with what looked like gibberish on it down in front of Nor. It wasn't technically gibberish, it was a code Nor had come up with when they had been 13 and Barry hadn't been able to speak out loud to him in class because he'd been written up too many times for it. His school notes had ended up covered in the code. They hadn't used the code since they had been in high school, so Barry bringing it back was a bit surprising.

"Will this work for you, or is there anything you want to change? Please tell me this is enough. I'm sick of hearing about this shop!" Barry whined as he looked down at his familiar.

Nor read over the plan, eyes scanning back and forth. Turns out that Barry had been listening to him these past few weeks as he rattled on and on every morning. Nor looked up at his pack mate to tell him as much when a tiny keg on a collar, of all things, was shoved rudely into his face.

"I'm not getting questioned about the code again, so you, my dear wolfie, are going to carry it," Barry said. 

The smile on his face was no less than shit eating and Nor really wanted to be upset because he was /not/ a pack mule, he was a pack mate damn it, but the forethought in this was a good sign that Barry was actually going to follow through with getting him the ball, so he was willing to suffer the...wait a minute.

"Where, pray tell, did you get that ridiculous collar any way, pup?" The wolf asked warily.

"There's this fashion store in Keystone..." Barry started to say, shit eating grin still on his face, as he reached forward to put it on Nor, and the wolf, realizing what he'd walked into, snapped his jaws at just the right time.

\---

"Mr. Allen," Barry heard Captain Singh sigh, "why is your hand bandaged and clearly bleeding through?"

Barry jerked his head down to look at his hand before replying to the Captain just as Nor jerked his head around to look at the same hand, and sure enough, several places were ruby red with blood from wounds that hadn't speed healed yet.

Barry gave a sour look to Nor before turning to the Captain.

"Funny story sir," Barry began.

"Did you get mugged?"

"What, no!"

"Was it an act of extreme clumsiness?"

"No..."

"Then what, Mr. Allen, did that do you?"

Barry didn't answer for a beat longer than what was probably acceptable and Singh quirked an eye brow.

"Did your soulmate do that to you, Mr. Allen," he asked softly.

Barry smiled sadly and said, "No sir, I still haven't found them. My familiar did this to me. I got him a gift that was admittedly very tactless, though I thought useful, and he bit me. Neither of us thought that this would happen, he'd nipped me before with nothing so drastic happening."

Singh pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Your familiar who can make everyone else's familiars upset even when you aren't around so that no one goes near you lab, and this surprises you?"

Barry boggled at the man standing before him. "How do you know it was my familiar that was doing that? Last time we spoke, before the accelerator, you just thought it was an experiment or something that I had running."

Singh gave Barry a hard look, "I didn't make captain because I was pretty, Mr. Allen. While you were in your coma the same thing kept happening. You weren't around to run any tests which meant it could only be a handful of things. Though I'll admit the familiar theory wasn't that high on my list until now."

"Please don't tell anyone, sir? Joe doesn't like it when I tell people that my familiar can do more than a 'normal' familiar," Barry said, putting air quotes around normal.

Singh quirked a brow, "Normal?"

"My familiar has been doing stuff differently ever since that night," Barry said softly.

Singh didn't need the clarification to know that Barry meant the night his mother died and his father was blamed for it and not the night of the accelerator accident. He rolled his neck on his shoulders then nodded, he knew better than most that a lot of people could get...uppity for things that were different.

"Go home Allen. I don't need you bleeding on any of my evidence today. Get that taken care of and come back tomorrow."

"But sir!"

"Go. Home.”

Barry's shoulders slumped, but he nodded and turned around to go. They get all the way to the elevator, which is mercifully empty, before Barry says, "this is your fault. You just had to go and bite me."

"You went to Keystone without me."

There was a beat of silence as the elevator dinged, too soon to be the lobby and someone else got on, forcing an end to the conversation.

A smile tugged at Barry's lips though and he whispered, "worth it."

A visible shiver ran up the officer's back that had gotten into the elevator with them, and he looked at Barry in the reflection of the elevator doors with a strange look on his face. Barry smiled brightly back at him but did nothing else. When the elevator hit the lobby the officer couldn't get out of it fast enough.

"Did you have to growl the entire time after I said that?"

"Yes."

Barry rolled his eyes and walked out of the precinct. "When do you want to do this then?"

"Well, we suddenly have a free day to plan, why not tonight?" Nor said, looking up at him, ears turned forward, all attention on him human.

Barry sighed, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Nor howled his delight.

\---

"I have to learn to say 'no' to you. Two and a half weeks is a terrible record for me," Barry said from where they sat crouched across the street from the toy store. 

It had taken them no time at all to get there with Barry's speed, and he was now much stronger and had no problems carrying Nor in his arms, despite that fact that Nor was taller if he stood up on his hind legs. They'd had to run in bursts though so nothing burst into flames.

Barry had not been amused when Nor had started doing fire based puns after that. Not amused at all. Or the now ever popular 'keep your shirt on' once Nor realized that Barry had, in-fact, run around and burned all of his clothing off and lost his shirt because of it. A tick was forming at Barry's temple.

"It's a wonderful record for me," the wolf said, all of his teeth showing as he did a wolffish smile.

"I hate you."

"You love me."

Barry sighed. "Go see if the coast is clear and then let me know and I'll go to the back door."

"I know the plan, brat, I am still wearing your little toy keg aren't I?" Nor said coolly.

Barry grinned back and tapped the collars decoration. "You'll love me for it later on, the ball will fit inside it. I already checked." 

There was a moment as the implications hit Nor and his jaw dropped.

"Not only did you go to that sham of a clothing store, you went into the toy store and didn't bring the ball home!" Nor's face was slack.

Barry smiled brightly, "Yes."

Nor tried to bite him again and Barry dodged at lightning speed.

Laughing he said, "I knew that you'd want to be here with me when I got it, so it's not like I could just bring it home, you would have been even more upset."

Nor folded his ear back and gave Barry a thoroughly unimpressed look. 

Barry ruffled the fur on his head and turned back to the shop, "you might want to get going before the night gets any older. Didn't you say you met my soulmate around here? The one you're playing keep away from?" Barry cocked an eye brow at his familiar.

"If you want an apology for having made you the prize in my game, I'm still not sorry," Nor said as he ran across the street and into the shop. 

He looked all around, noting that the security was still just as bad. Barry would just have to disable the alarm at the back door and then it would be easy. Or maybe they hadn't even noticed from when he was here before. Nor went to the back of the shop and sure enough, the alarm was still disabled, but set up in such a way to make it still look functional. Barry was a little too good at this, such a pity that he wanted to be a CSI, but Nor understood the need to prove that their father was innocent and that the man with red lightning in the yellow suit was to blame. Wherever it was he was now, if he was still alive at all.

Nor stuck his head through the door and gave a quick howl. Barry was there in seconds, yellow sparks following him as he appeared. A black ski mask was already pulled down over his face, hiding everything but his mouth and eyes and he was pulling on not one, but two pair of black rubber gloves.

"Don't look at me like that, no matter how unlikely, it's still a possibility for someone to get a skin sample from the outside of a pair of rubber gloves no matter how carefully I put them on," Barry hissed.

"OCD," was all Nor said for his reply as he pulled his head back through the door. Both the front door and back door to the shop where wooden and Nor had to wonder if the owners had tested the way he and Barry had. Or if they just liked the look of the wooden doors versus anything else.

There was a soft click and Nor turned to see Barry was quickly closing the door behind him and facing the alarm panel, hands pausing when he saw that nothing was changed from his previous visit.

"Well," he said, turning to look at his familiar, "that'll do it."

Nor snorted and said, "I told you it didn't have the best security around."

Barry shook his head and moved farther into the shop, Nor moving ahead of him to get to the ball he'd been eyeing for months now.

By the time Barry got to the display case and had kneeled down, Nor already had the ball in his mouth and was waiting to be let out of the all glass enclosure.

"You are so ridiculous," Barry laughed softly, as he found the key for the small bolt and started to undo it.

There was a noise from the back where they had come from that had them both freezing and crouching down as low as they could go, which wasn't that low for Nor, who was refusing to let go of the ball.

A pale gold/white light entered the room and Barry sped himself up, dilating time around him, and he saw a cheetah at the head of the lightning trail. His jaw dropped. He quickly opened the door, pulled the ball out of Nor's mouth, hid it in one of his own pockets, and closed the door again, clicking the little bolt back into place.

A low voice reached their ears once Barry dropped back to normal speed and the cheetah was out of the room again.

"What did you see?"

"They're here."

Nor came out of the case and glared daggers at Barry.

"Don't look at me like that, I have it," Barry nearly said above a whisper. "And how did they know we'd be here tonight?"

"Because this isn't my first rodeo," the first voice said, "now stand up and let me see Nor's counterpart."

Barry and Nor looked at each other as if to ask if this guy was for real. Barry did stand though because he was wearing a mask.

Leonard Snart laughed, "apparently not yours either if you knew enough to wear a mask." The man let his eyes travel down Barry's body, eyes pausing mid way down and a smirk forming on his face, "or gloves. Don't want anyone to know who you are? Got a secret to hide?"

Barry didn't say anything and he kept his eyes locked on Leonard's. Nor moved to stand next to Barry, his hackles already up, teeth bared.

Snart smirked and rolled his eyes, the cheetah moving around behind him so that he was facing Barry and Nor.

"So this is it, our first meeting as the four of us all together," the cheetah chirped as it cocked it's head to the side. It's big eyes boring into Barry's and he couldn't help but blink first.

Snart inclined his head slightly and glanced down at his familiar, it was picking up something he was not.

"What's wrong Chain?"

Barry watched as Chain shook his head and moved forward, Nor mirroring his movements so that as Chain went wide to Barry's right Nor went wide to Barry's left.

"Nor," Barry hissed, his eyes narrowing as he dared to pull his gaze away from the master criminal in front of him.

"Oh good, you can speak. I was starting to wonder," Snart snarked, the smirk, if possible, growing wider, though he had already heard Barry speak a moment ago, so he was just trying to push Barry’s buttons.

Nor huffed and moved back closer to Barry while he said, "just because he's not talking to you doesn't mean he can't talk. Just means he has nothing to say to you."

Barry wanted to either slap his palm to his face, have the ground swallow him, or let out a long suffering sigh, but he couldn't do any of them because it would break what ever image Nor had gotten stuck in Snart's head that Barry was supposed to be. He wasn't sure what the bigger let down was going to be, that he wasn't a thief normally, that he worked for CCPD, that he was starting to become some kind of vigilante hero, or that he was just some lanky nerd and not whatever Snart thought he was in general.

At least a super hero was cool enough to keep up with the kind of master criminal this Snart was supposed to be. Nor had given him the Cliff notes version of it all the last two weeks when he hadn't been talking about this stupid toy store. ...he was actually really starting to hate this place now.

Barry was suddenly thrown off balance when a furry body impacted him as it jumped onto his chest. Nor howled in rage and Barry knew then that it must be the cheetah, Chain.

"Why aren't you paying attention to us! I could see it in your eyes, you totally zoned out! We're trying to have a conversation here about us finding you and beating Nor's game and you aren't even listening!" Chain yowled in Barry's face.

"But you haven't beaten the game, you don't know who I am," Barry said plainly, and dropped Chain from his arms. In a hardly perceived shock of gold lightning Barry was at the back door of the shop, Nor moving as quickly as he could once his own perceptions had caught up.

"Sorry Snart, you're going to have to try harder...next time," Barry said as he quickly bent down and reengaged the security system from whatever he'd done to disable it. He stood back up and smiled cheekily at the older man. "Hope you know how to get away fast," he said as he scooped Nor up and opened the door.

The alarm rang out immediately and Barry and Nor were gone the moment the opening was wide enough. Barry didn't run far, he wanted to see if he could spot Snart making his escape, but they didn't see anything and the pair made their own speedy retreat before the police got too much closer.

Once back within Central's boarders, and in between one of the bursts, Barry paused and looked at Nor side eyed.

"How long do you think we can keep this going?"

The look the wolf gave him would have sent chills down anyone that hadn't know Nor as long as Barry had.

"As long as possible."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Len and Chain were out the door the moment after their soulmates were, though admittedly not as fast. Len had parked his bike in the shadow of the building and was quick to get the helmet on and get the engine going before he was on his way, Chain pacing the bike easily.

He was unamused that while he had met his soulmate, and they weren't just as fast as Chain but faster, he'd been wearing a mask so he /still/ didn't know who his soulmate was! He was blaming the mongrel for this. It had to have been Nor's idea for his human to have worn a mask like that. 

He was amused though that the other man had been able to re-arm the alarm and set it off before he'd rabbited. Talk about a game of cat and...well wolf, Nor wasn't meek enough to be a mouse.

He'd lead them back to a safe house that Mick and Lisa weren't at because he needed the privacy to be able to really loose his cool and interact with Chain, and while he had been doing that more frequently in front of them, it was still hard after so many lessons from Lewis had taught him not to.

Chain was already in the small, single story house before Len had even finished parking his bike and Len just shook his head. Unlocking the back door and flipping light switches as he went until he found the big cat, upside down on the sofa, waiting for Len.

"This situation seems all to familiar to me, you big kitten," he drawled, dropping down onto the floor in front of his familiar. "What has you so pleased /this/ time?"

Chain's tail flicked and he purred briefly, "my soul Len, I got to meet my other half!"

Len's poster eased some, "you are a big kitten, he hardly even acknowledged you before he dropped you and they both ran away."

"But he did speak to me! He was nervous, I'm not sure about what though. I could tell as soon as I jumped on him and he was supporting my weight. It was like my lightning and his helped our connection? I don't know, that doesn't make sense," Chain flipped upright, hopping down and climbing into Len's lap, pushing him back so that Len was forced to lean on his elbows.

Len huffed and lay down flat on his back, he always forgot how strong his cheetah was, so that when he did something that showed the strength it caught him off guard. Familiars weren't flesh and blood animals after all, they represented someone's soul, and souls weren't exactly things that could have their strength tested.

"What could he possibly have to be nervous about? He was wearing a mask and had gloves on, how were we going to figure out who he was?" Len snarked, a slight sneer on his face. Couldn't his soulmate cut him some slack?

"We did kind of surprise him, we knew Nor was eventually going to go back there. Then there was theft reported from the shop next door a couples of days ago, and they have better security than the toy store," Chain lay his head down on Len's chest and started purring again. Len brought his hands up and started running them through the fur on his shoulders.

"Couldn't you have let me be mad for even a little bit? He got away and that mongrel is just going to be insufferable the next time we find them," Len said in mock aggravation.

Chain's only reply was to scoot forward some and nuzzle under Len's chin as he continued to purr.

Len sighed, "my soulmate is going to be more insufferable than you, isn't he? Just laying on top of me and happy?"

A spark ran up Len's arms from Chain's fur and he felt the vibrations of Chain's purring shift from the deep tone he was used to to a higher one and then they stopped all together.

Man and cat looked at each other for a moment, Len finding his voice first, "Don't you dare try anything new with me pin..."

The rest was cut off as Chain's purr started up again, first the deep sound and then oscillated back to the higher tone, the vibrations from it felt like a body massage.

Chain knew it too then moment that Len relaxed entirely on the floor.

"I hate you, and I'm going to hate my soulmate."

Chain just sparked and picked a new frequency to add into his purring.

\---

Len and Chain were standing across the street from the toy store the following day, watching as KPD and their CSI went over the scene.

Len nodded in their direction and Chain loped across the street to listen in on what was being said. Len remained where he was, partially hidden and waiting.

Chain didn't come back until the CSI had packed up and was taken away. Len cocked an eyebrow and waited.

"They couldn't find anything. They said just one thing was missing, a ball, but no finger prints, the case wasn't forced open, the back door was the only one that had been open when the responding officers arrived on the scene last night, but the alarm system doesn't look like it was tampered with. The camera's haven't recorded anything in at least five days though, and the shop owners have no explanations for that because footage was showing up on the monitors. The CSI didn't say anything one way or another, but all the cops over there are thinking it was an inside job and that whomever it was tripped the alarm on purpose," Chain reported back.

"Five days lines up to when the other store was robbed. I wonder if the CSI will notice that," Len wondered allowed. "Looks like my soulmate knows what their doing at least. That'll be good when I bring him into the crew. I won't have to waste time training him."

Chain snorted, his whispers swinging far forward with the noise, “is that what you were going to call it? ‘Wasting time’ isn’t what I’ve heard other humans call it.”

Len leveled his familiar a look as he moved to walk down the street, “soulmate or not, i’m certainly not sleeping with anyone if they’re not interested, you heathen.”

Chain just trotted circles around Len, an annoying new habit brought on by his new speed, and asked, “what if he doesn’t want to have fun times in bed at all? What if he just want to sleep next to you?”

Len shrugged a shoulder, " then it'll be nice to share a bed with someone and not have to worry about waking up to their butt in my face."

Stumbling because Chain pushed him was well worth it.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barry and Nor were out with Iris, getting caught up on the things that Barry had missed the last nine months, when they heard police sirens in the distance starting to get closer.

The pair of humans turned around to look down the road in the direction of the sound and it didn't take long for them to find out who or what the police were chasing. A black car came around whipping around a corner and Barry grabbed Iris and quickly moved her out of harms way before going after the car.

He found himself sitting in the passenger seat and sitting next to Clyde Mardon, the supposedly dead bank robber.

Both men looked shocked at the turn of events, but Barry snapped his hand out and grabbed the wheel, turning sharply and flipping the car. He flashed out and snagged Clyde on the way, not wanting to actually kill the other man in the over turning car.

Once both were standing opposite of each other Barry said, "What are you doing?"

"I'm picking up where Mark and I left off, but this time I'll be unstoppable!" Clyde called back, and he held out his arms. Fog started to roll in behind him from out of nowhere. "You're like me, right? You showed up in my car from thin air and then pulled us both out when you flipped it. We could rule this city!"

"I don't want to rule it," Barry said, dread creeping into his voice.

"So be it," Clyde replied, and the fog enveloped them both and Barry lost him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you in September~! 


	6. Play with Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry meets someone in his apartment that never thought would find him there. S.T.A.R. Labs gets with the hero program with more ease than Barry expected as he goes off to stop his first bank robbery in progress. Len is unamused to see the speedster playing a hero after he's already met him at being a thief. So he takes matters into his own hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So September marks 1 full year since I started this story.I should wait until the 24th, but really, I can't so hey, chapter 6 is here now!
> 
> All of your comments continue to amaze me and I love you all dearly for them. ♡ I hope I continue to live up to the kind words you all leave for me.
> 
> To Alicat, 1 year of love for you ♡

Observational notes, Barry Allen:  
Nor's fur doesn't burst into fire when I carry him in the suit that Cisco made, which is good because it's awesome to go faster, and his howl's of delight are an added bonus. It does kind of sound like he's trying to be a police siren sometimes, but he says he's not.  
It's never occurred to us before if concentrated elements would effect a familiar, like when my clothing kept bursting into flame when I ran at the start, so we decided that we hadn't tested anything with familiar mechanics in a while.  
We only used a cheap lighter at first, no sense in potentially actually burning him, but he put the tip of his paw over the flame, and then more of it and then all of it and the flame just went around it but didn't catch on him. Nor said it felt warm, like sitting in the sunlight, but nothing more. We looked at each other as I let the lighter click off and we knew we needed a bigger flame.  
The Bunsen burner in my lab at CCPD also had no effect on Nor. So fire, safe for at least my familiar. Nor wanted to try cold next, which was going to be a bit of a problem because it wasn't cold outside and we didn't have a walk in freezer with easy access. And it's not like the cold ever bothered him anyway.   
Nor huffed and said that we would figure something out.

\---

Joe had been furious with Barry for endangering Iris' life and his own, and wouldn't listen when Barry tried to tell him that he'd seen Clyde Mardon. They'd had a fight right there in the middle of the street and both had left unhappy.

"He never listens to me!" Barry said bitterly as he and Nor were walking back their apartment.

"It's because he doesn't like what he can't see. He's someone that is very 'seeing is believing'," Nor huffed, and pressed against Barry's leg as they moved closer to home.

Barry sunk his fingers into Nor's fur and sighed out his frustration. Why did it always have to be this way? Why couldn't he and Joe ever have a discussion about strange things where Joe didn't end up giving him his Disappointed Face?

By the time they got back to their place Barry was less frustrated and more curious, how was Clyde Mardon still alive? Joe had told him both Mardon brother's had been in a small plain that had crashed after having been struck by lightning.

"It was the same night that you were struck too," Nor said as he hopped up onto his chair in the kitchen. "And he clearly has abilities now that he didn't have before. He must have been the one to create that fog."

"But how does a human create fog!" Barry exclaimed as he opened his fridge to look for something to eat. He'd been feeling hungrier lately, even though he'd been eating the way he had before. He'd have to remember to bring it up with the team at S.T.A.R. Labs sometime soon. "If we were both struck by lightning then why can he make fog and I can't? It makes no sense."

"What is it you can do then if you can't control the weather?" A new voice said causing Barry to slam his head in the fridge before he could pull it out all of the way and then turn around and Nor started to growl.

Standing in their living room was Clyde Mardon himself. Looking around the space itself and not at Barry, like he wasn't worried that he'd just broken into an occupied apartment...if he could control the weather he probably wasn't.

"I can't do anything," Barry said as Clyde bent over to pick something up. Barry moved out of the kitchen to see what it was and saw that Clyde had his work bag in his hands and was pulling his laminate out. A slow smile spreading across his face.

"So this is why you seemed all chummy with that detective, you're one of their lab rats," Clyde said and finally turned to look at Barry. "And try again, Barry, because I know you can do something. You got into my car and then got us both out of it when you jerked the wheel to flip it. Can you teleport?"

Clyde's face seemed to light up at the prospect of someone being able to actually teleport, and Barry had this sinking feeling in his stomach.

"I can't teleport."

Nor was standing in front of him and had his ears back and was snarling now, Barry glanced down at him and then up at Clyde, watching him carefully. It wasn't until Nor barked that Clyde finally shivered and then he frowned.

"What are you doing, Allen? What are you doing that is upsetting my familiar so much!" Clyde moved forward and got in Barry's face, catching a hold of his shirt and Nor barked again, which caused Clyde to shudder. "Stop it!"

"I can't because I'm not doing it. You're upsetting my familiar. His bad mood is what's upsetting your familiar," Barry said, and for a moment he was sure that he was going to get hit.

Clyde leaned farther into Barry's space and said, "no ones familiar can do that."

"Mine's been doing it for years," Barry said nervously, Nor at his side so he could burry his fingers in his fur.

Clyde caught the motion from the corner of his eye and looked down, "that's how big he is, your familiar?" 

Clyde sounded like he was judging Nor, and while Barry could let himself be pushed around, he wasn't going to let someone speak badly about his brother. He brought his arms up at super speed and pushed Clyde back with the momentum from it. "If you have a problem with my familiar then you have a problem with me."

Clyde looked at him from where he'd ended up toppled over a chair and smiled, "there's that fire from the car!" He pulled himself up and it looked like he was getting ready to fight.

"What do you want, Mardon," Barry practically growls, he could tell Nor was pleased by this from where he was still standing next to him.

"I want you."

Barry blinked at him, that was not what he'd been expecting.

"What ever it is that you can do, I'm sure it can help me rob banks. The way you got in and out of that car, the way you just pushed me off of you," and then he waved Barry's laminate at him, still clutched in his one hand, "and you'd know how to do it all with out leaving evidence behind. We could own this town! And then when Mark gets back the three of us could be a force of nature the likes of which the world has never known!"

"He's lost whatever sanity he had left," Nor says dryly next to him.

"I won't help you, I work for the CCPD. I won't be one of those kinds of cops that goes bad. I got this job so that I could prove my father was innocent," Barry says vehemently.

Clyde makes a face, Barry's not quite sure what emotion he's trying to convey with it, but he watches as his laminate falls from the bank robbers hand all the same once he's apparently made up his mind.

"Fine then, but if you won't be on my side, then you're still going to play the game with me. If there's anything in this world that I've learned its that there are two kinds of people. Cops and robbers. I'm already the robber, so that means you have to be the cop. Whatever it is that you can do, you better figure out a way to use it to play with me. Otherwise everyone will know you're just like me." Clyde looked so smug as he held his hands out at his sides, so self satisfied, that Barry just wanted to punch him.

"He'll never see me coming," Nor said, and Barry glanced back to his familiar and saw that the wolf had moved so that he was in front of Clyde, easily able to bite one of his hands. If only Barry would touch him...

Clyde made a rage filled exit with a bloody hand and calling obscenities over his shoulder as he dashed out the window and into the late afternoon. Barry was beyond shocked no one reported him to the police...or the buildings super for a noise complaint.

He used his speed to clear up the blood that Clyde had left behind and then went after Nor to clean his mouth and muzzle.

"I'm fine! I've licked most of it away already," Nor huffed. The horrified look on Barry's face let him know that that was the wrong thing to say. "Familiars can't get blood born pathogens, we've been over this, pup. And over it and over it and over it. Stop looking at me like I'm going to contract ebola."

Barry still managed to guilt Nor into the bathroom to properly wash his mouth out, the wolf couldn't handle Barry's kicked puppy look. He should have never allowed Barry to learn that look when they were younger. He'd taken a master class in it at some point and Nor was not immune to it at all. He pitied Snart for when this game of theirs was over, the stupid human stood no chance.

Once everything and everyone was dry, Nor had made sure Barry had gotten just as wet as he did, the pair ended up just going to bed. They'd deal with everything else in the morning.

\---

"What do you mean Clyde Mardon knows you have abilities?!"

Somehow, that was not the reaction he'd been expecting from Dr. Wells at all. Not by a long shot. Nor was growling lowly at his side and Cisco and Caitlyn were on the other side of the room trying to make themselves invisible. They were doing a surprisingly good job at it.

"He followed me back to my apartment yesterday after I tried to stop him from getting away," Barry tried to defend himself.

"Tried to stop him...without any kind of a mask to protect your identity. What if he goes looking for your loved ones to use against you, Mr. Allen?" Dr. Wells said, the flash of anger gone, now quietly simmering back to his normal tone, but still angry non-the-less.

Barry's face paled and Nor shifted to press into his leg, Barry's hand sinking into his fur. He hadn't even considered that Clyde might go after them, and there he'd been, arguing with the man in his own living room just he day before.

"What am I supposed to do? He said that if I wasn't going to join his side that I'd need to be the cop to his robber. That I needed to figure out a way to play his game. I can't do that without everyone finding out who I am."

Wells gave him a less than impressed look and sighed, "don't think that I am unaware of the plans that you and Mr. Ramon are making for his prototype fireman's suit, Mr. Allen."

Off to the side Cisco made a noise close to a dying animal and Barry's face wasn't sure if it wanted to go red in embarrassment or bloodless with worry at having been caught by his idol. It was an odd sensation to say the least. Caitlyn gave an exasperate sigh for her part.

They spent the rest of the afternoon testing Barry's speed, again, but this time in Cisco's suit to see how it would hold up against Barry's speed. It did a remarkable job.

They had just made it back to the cortex when the call came in over the police scanner, that Cisco had been monitoring, of a bank robbery in progress with some very strange atmospheric shenanigans going on.

Barry looked at the three humans and his familiar and said, "now or never," and dashed out of S.T.A.R. Labs, en route to the bank to see just what he could do against Clyde Mardon.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Len had the table in the warehouse covered with plans, time tables, city maps, calculations and a photograph of a diamond. The date of when it would be arriving in Central was getting closer and he needed to be ready. He'd gotten a crew together that didn't involve Lisa or Mick as that had been his original plan.

The boys were watching an old tv behind him while he and Chain were looking at the schematics for the armored car. The copy he'd gotten ahold of had a strange note on it that listed tolerances to how hot or cold the metal could get. A strange addition to be sure, but something he could work with. He made a note to get a canister of some liquid nitrogen and then turned back to the schematic.

He wasn't paying attention to anything else when Chain nearly pushed him over and then he heard one of the men from the new crew calling him over. He sighed but went to see what they thought was so exciting.

He clenched his jaw to stop it from dropping open. The news was looping a short clip of a bank robbery getaway where a man, clearly controlling the weather, was fighting something else that looked like a streak of gold lightning.

"That guy looks like Mardon," Len heard one of his men say.

"Which Mardon?" Another asked.

"The younger one," the first one replied back.

"I thought they both died the night of the Accelerator. They're both listed as dead," the third man said.

Everyone turned to look at him and he shrugged, "I had family I couldn't find so I read the whole list." Everyone left it at that.

"That's him you know," Chain said, boosting up behind Len to rest his paws on Len's shoulders. "And it looks like he's trying to stop Clyde."

Len turned and left the others to watch the rest of the news and went off into a different room, he needed to be able to talk to Chain about this possible turn of their soulmate.

Once he'd found a room off to the side that had a door he could close, he slammed it shut and turned to look at his familiar, eye brows drawn together and anger building. He couldn't even get words out. If the lightning streak was /his/ soulmate then why was he running around and playing with Clyde Mardon and not Len himself! If he wanted to run around and play hero Len could have helped him do that!

"You're seething."

"I am not seething!" Len shouted...and then blinked, he realized how tight his muscles had gotten and he shook himself out.

"I don't like stealing you know," Chain said as he came up next to Len, pressed against him and started to purr.

"But that doesn't mean he doesn't like it. We've seen him do it at least once and know of one other time that we can trace back to him confidently. Why is he playing hero now? And don't tell me that maybe it was a one time thing, it's never a one time thing. He was good at it, too good at it. And with his speed now he could be great at it," Len frowned and threaded his fingers into Chain's fur. "We need to figure out who he is, end this game that the mongrel wants to play already."

"You do realize that by calling Nor a mongrel that you're effectively calling yourself the same thing, right?"

Len tugged Chain's ear to the side for his sass but otherwise made no comment on it. When he and Nor stopped this ridiculous game of keep away he'd consider being nicer to the wolf...maybe. 

"What are we going to do about Mardon playing cops and robbers with our soulmate?"

Chain huffed in exasperation, shifted from under Len's hand and ran his sandpaper tongue over part of if. Len's reaction was immediate, if not a little comical to Chain, when he jerked it back looking betrayed. 

"Stop digging a hole in your head, all we have to do is find the people on your short list and go and pay them a visit. Easy, easy," Chain chirped at him. 

Len was still rubbing his hand as he considered this. It hadn't been a very long list after all. 

"We can see what ever became of Doc Allen's kid first. He's either still in a coma, dead or back among the land of the living. In which case it'll be easy enough to find him," Len smiled down at Chain and swept his hand over the big cat's head as he moved back out of the small room. For now he had to work on the diamond heist some more. 

\---

As it turned out Allen the Younger had, in fact, survived his coma and was in the waking world again. Len was not able to find an exact date though for when he had woken up, nor was he able to find out where he had finished his treatment. If he took into account that his soulmate had become one of these powered people, then it would make sense that it would be kept quite if Barry had ended up with some kind of ability. He smirked to himself as he wondered what Allen's answer was.

Chain bumped into him to bring his attention back to the real world and he looked up, they were at the address for Barry's apartment building. Len reached for the door, already knowing that it was not the kind were he needed to be buzzed in and quickly went inside. The elevator was easy enough to find, but the "out of order" sign was disappointing. 

"Looks like you're getting leg day today after all," Chain chirped as they headed for the stairs, an extra bounce in his steps at Len's soon-to-be struggle up six flights of stairs.

Len paused in the stairwell before opening the door onto the sixth floor and took a deep breath and then pushed it open. He looked down the hall to the very last door and then looked down at Chain, the big cat nodded back to him and they moved on down the hallway until the came to the end where Len knocked twice.

He heard a surprised noise from inside and then, “they’re early!”

“This should be good,” Len said softly to Chain, a smirk tugging at his face. He wondered who the younger Allen was expecting.

From the other side of the door he heard, “don’t give me that look, it’s a possibility that they’re early. What did I do with my wallet, need to make sure I tip them this time if it is them.”

“Delivery of some kind,” Chain said as he sat down next to Len to watch the show when the kid opened the door and realized they didn’t have food.

Closer this time they heard, “Come on, of course it’s the delivery…” and here the door swung open to reveal a very awake an animated Barry Allen to Len, quite the difference from the last time he saw him all of those months ago when he was laying in that hospital bed, “…guy.” 

Barry blinked at Len and tipped his head to the right but his left eyebrow went up at the same time. “You’re either new or not the pizza guy,” Barry said, sounding like he already knew which one the answer was.

Len’s smirk started to grow wider when he felt a vibration run through Chain and he looked down. Chain was staring, wide eyed, at Barry but otherwise not doing anything. He was sitting stock still, which was something he hadn’t done since before the accelerator. It was Len’s turn to blink and then look back up at Barry, who was still looking right at him. Len didn’t think he’d looked down at where Chain was, some people considered it rude even if they couldn’t see the familiar.

“No, i’m not here to deliver anything,” Len started to say.

“Oh, then you probably want the apartment two doors down on the right, you passed it coming to my door. That’s where the parties are most nights. Nothing happens here in my corner apartment,” Barry smiled, cutting Len off. Len huffed a bit.

“I’m not here for any party either.”

“…You don’t look like the description of Mrs. Obrazik’s grandson, though to be fair I haven’t been to visit with her in a while so I could use a refresher on what he looks like,” he smiled politely again at Len, and now he was starting to wonder if it was a distraction technique.

“I’m not related to anyone in this building,” he said and quickly held his hand up, stoping Barry from saying anything again. Barry snapped his mouth shut, almost audibly, and raised both of his eyebrows as he looked on at Len. “I came here to see you specifically, Barry.”

The kids eyes went a bit wide and it didn’t look like he was going to do anything for a moment but then he snorted, “this is a prank, right? Someone paid you to do this? I’m sorry you had o come all this way. Tell me what they were going to give you and I’ll see if I can match it so that you can just call it an early night, ok?”

Barry turned to go back into his apartment, maybe to get more money, maybe to get an actual check book, Len didn’t know and neither did Chain because he finally moved at that moment and Len moved with him. His hand snapped out and snagged Barry’s wrist and both men froze, both now inside Barry’s apartment.

Len felt like lightning was running up his arm, like when he would sometimes be running his hands through Chain’s fur since he had woken up after the accelerator, but the palm of his hand and his fingers felt cold from where they were wrapped around Barry’s wrist. 

Both men looked at the point of contact and then up at each other again. Len watched as Barry swallowed thickly and in that moment he knew he had won Nor’s game.

“Nor, you can come out now,” Len called, his smirk back in full force on his face, the words coming out in a lazy drawl as he reached behind him and closed the door.

The wolf literally walked out from inside the sofa and was scowling daggers at Len as he came up next to Barry, and Barry for his part just seemed to sigh like he was defeated. Which, no, that is not what you’re supposed to do when you finally find your soulmate, and it’s certainly not how he was acting when they met at the toy…

“You work for CC…”

“Yes, I work for CCPD and yes, you and first met at that gods damned toy store in Keystone,” Barry said as he pulled his wrist free and moved to sit down on the sofa, head in his hands.

So...not how Len thought this was going to go, but he was still going to find out why /his/ soulmate was playing games with Clyde Mardon. He just needed to find out some other things now too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pizza ended up being twenty minutes late, Leonard answered the door and didn’t give delivery guy a tip because he complained about carrying the special order of ten pizzas, again. Barry wished the sofa had the ability to swallow him whole.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still dealing with my back issues from just before chapter 5, but incase anyone wanted an update:  
> Not a herniated disc  
> Not a nerve thing  
> Not sciatica  
> It's a muscle thing, and muscle things work themselves out whenever they see fit to do so. SO, pain for an unknown time is in my future. Joy. My PT lady says that I have been improving though and I have started to have more days with out the pain...I think. Pain days just make it hard to tell. =D;;
> 
> See you in December, kitties!!!


	7. Come Together Hellions at My Heels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Barry and Len have their first meeting, however short it may be, and a different path is set in motion to what history used to remember.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the well wishes about my back. I'm out of PT, though mainly because i was still having pain even after having been going since August (to November). I'm doing what I can and my back is finally starting to slowly agree with me again. Still some where it pulls a Loki and does what it wants though too, so /shrug 
> 
> I hope this chapter lives up to all the amazing comments you all keep giving me, I still feel undeserving of them. Yes, I know a few of you have told me otherwise in no uncertain terms, and I am grateful <3
> 
> Hope you enjoy chapter 7 like you've enjoyed the previous 6!!

Observational notes, B. Allen:  
It’s fascinating to know that my soulmates familiar was effected by the accelerator just because I was affected by it. Ironically it’s a cheetah, so it could already run pretty fast, but now it runs inside the lightning like I can. It’s lightning color isn’t the same as mine though, a paler shade. I wonder if my soulmate picked up on that?  
I wonder if other people’s paired familiars also got toned down versions of what they can do? Can you imagine a familiar controlling the weather, on small scale, because their human got upset or was being bullied?  
Speaking of doing things on behalf of their humans...Nor has been affecting other people for a while now, no crazy burst of dark matter needed...Did my soulmate dump all of his character points into charisma or something and that’s leaking over into Nor?  
(Nor stop looking at me like that, these are my notes, and if I want to make a dumb reference that no one will get, then who will know? No one, that’s who, because they’re my notes)

—-

The sofa did not swallow Barry up, letting him escape whatever questions Snart had for him, it made him sad, which made Chain sad, which made the cheetah go and huddle against Snart and that just made the criminal stare at him harder. Fantastic. Barry sped through eating another pizza.

Nor had to hop up next to him and hold his paw out, as if he was going to put it on Barry’s arm, which would have been dumb because at the speed Barry was eating he could have gotten hurt. Barry slowed to a stop and only then did Nor put his paw on Barry’s arm.

“Stop, breath, breath again, drink water, breath,” the wolf said. Barry saw Snart raise an eyebrow out of the corner of his eye, but he still did what his familiar said.

Once he had an arm wrapped around Nor but didn’t reach for the Pizza again he heard a soft, “ oh,” from Snart and he looked up properly at the other man.

“I knew you were nervous meeting me like this and loosing Nor’s game, kid, I didn’t think you’d be having a panic attack over it.” There was a frown on his face and his one hand was rubbing one of Chain’s ears in between it softly.

Barry just shrugged and turned to burry his face in Nor’s fur, something he hadn’t done since middle school really, but it would stop Snart from seeing his face since the man could see actually his familiar.

“Are you nervous because I’m a world class criminal? Wanted in several countries? Because I know what you did the other night? What do you have to be nervous about kid, I’m your soulmate,” Snart said, his tone playful, if a bit goading.

“He’s worried because he’s on the other side of the law, he’s a CSI, a nerd, and I quote, “just Barry Allen” though I’m not sure how that’s an argument for anything, but our school years weren’t the best and the things bully’s say to you can often stick in your head stronger than anything else,” Nor said, first looking down at Barry but then turning to look up at Snart. “He only sees himself as some scrawny kid no matter how many years pass...even when he gets superpowers and is literally saving people from burning buildings.”

Nor sat quietly as he watched Snart and Chain take that all in, head cocked to the side, like Barry’s had been when they’d been standing at the door. He could feel Barry vibrating in pulses against him, his nerves getting the better of him. He leaned more against his human to force him to sit up just a bit more.

“Wait wait,” Chain said, “that streak of red and gold leaving the scene of the burning building a few days ago was you!”

Nor watched as Snart’s eyes went wide as he felt Barry sigh against him, no one had been very pleased with Barry that he kept going back in looking for ‘just one more person.’

“Red streak huh?” Snart said, “so that’s you going around saving everyone…Scarlet? First you’re playing cops and robbers with Clyde Mardon and then you go out and save people from a burning building?”

Snart smirked as he leaned forward, Chain shifting some so that he could put a paw on his humans leg. Snart reached out and rested his hand on the big cat’s head.

Nor watched the cat relax some, Barry was still not looking and it was starting to worry the wolf. He pulled his eyes away from the other pair and forced his nose under Barry’s chin and pushed his head up.

“Ok, ok, I get it. I’ll pay better attention, you dumb dog,” Barry said, only to get a cold, wet nose to the hollow of his throat. He hissed and pulled up to sit completely upright.

“None of that ‘DD’ nonsense...pup,” Nor said, sounding self satisfied.

A chitter and a groan pulled their attention back to the other pair and Barry saw that Chain looked thrilled and Snart looked ...affectionately disgruntled. Barry felt the ends of his ears heat up in mild embarrassment, no one was normally privy to Nor’s side of the conversation.

“You really do seem to be the day to my night, kid,” Snart said as his smirk stretched a bit wider again.

Barry threw his hands in the air and let his head fall to the back of the sofa, “great, my own soulmate see’s me as a child. I wake up after a 9 month coma to my familiar calling me ‘pup’ out of the blue, and now I’ve gone right to ‘kid’ with his soul. I can’t win. One criminal will out me if I don’t play his game and now I’m going to be a constant disappointment to another one. How did this become my life?”

Barry buried his face in his hands again and missed the startled look on the human and the familiar’s faces.

Snart looked to Nor, Chain and then Barry himself before getting up and moving to partially kneel in front of him. “Only way you can disappoint me is if you tell me you out right reject me as a soulmate. Otherwise we can do this anyway you want.”

He reached out and placed a hand on Barry’s head, slowly threading his fingers into his hair. “You want me to bring Clyde onto my crew and keep an eye on him, fine. Though I’m going to need a way to keep up with you both. Something that can cool you both off. He’s a hot head that’s too quick to anger and can’t think through the problem, if what I’ve heard is anything to go by. You on the other hand, you seem to get worked up and need to cool down.”

Barry’s head snapped up, forcing Snart’s hand to slide the the base of his skull, and he blinked owlishly at the man.

“Wait, you’d do that...for me? You don’t even know me. I’m just some nerd that got struck by lightning and...”

And Barry’s phone chose that moment to chime out a text alert from Cisco, the personalized tone the only real indication Barry or Nor needed to know it was most likely Flash business.

In a sudden burst of light Barry was over at his bag and holding his phone, eyes apparently not moving, but Nor knew that they were just moving that fast.

Barry groaned, “Clyde is at /another/ bank! I didn’t know Central even had this many different banks, branches yes, banks no.” He turned back around to Snart, “we’re going to have to finish this later, if you want to.”

“Believe me, he wants to,” Nor said, wolffish smirk on his long muzzle as he came over to Barry.

“Don’t provoke him,” Barry said softly, catching a hold of one of the wolfs ears and tweaking it gently between his fingers. He looked at Snart and then looked at the door, “I can’t let you stay here, I don’t know how long Clyde is going to try and drag this out.”

The pair watched Snart and Chain nod and stand. Chain coming up to Barry and getting his head under his free hand and getting Barry to pet him.

“It’s ok, Red. Len will get Clyde under control and then you can get a breather,” the big cat said.

“Stop forcing him to pet you, you big kitten,” Snart said, with what Barry thought was fondness in his voice, and gave a slight tug to the cat’s tail. Once Chain had moved to stand next to Snart, the man looked up at Barry again and said, “my familiar is right thought, Scarlet, I’ll find Clyde and get him to heel. It’ll be a bit tricky, sure, since I don’t have any powers, but that just means I have to up my game to do it. Be seeing you around.”

Barry waited until the door was closed before be was flashing down the fire escape and off to go “play” with Clyde...again. He was only half wishing that Snart was able to do something.

=========================================================

Len wasn’t sure how he was going to keep up with someone as fast as his soulmate was or someone that controlled the weather. It was problematic all around. As he walked back to his bike he pondered it over. They both needed to cool off in different ways, but how?

“Too bad they aren’t like the armored truck you’ve been studying,” Chain quipped next to him and Len stopped short and stared at the cat.

“What?”

“To cool them off, it’s too bad you can’t actually hit them with something cold. And you were muttering out loud. If you want to keep your soulmate’s ID on the down low, you should get that muttering checked out,” Chain chirped happily.

“First, stop sitting in the same room as Lisa, or at least never say ‘down low’ in reference to a person again to me. Second...actually hitting them with cold...”Len trailed off looking thoughtful and hurried to his bike.

“Len, no!”

“Len, yes! Probably...”

~~~

They made it back to the safe house in time to see the end of the news broadcast of the the fight between Barry and Clyde. They watch as Clyde throws actual lightning at their soulmate and Len progressively looses more of his own cool. How dare the younger Mardon try to hurt his soulmate!

Chain was pacing in front of the tv as the fight wound down and “the Flash” dashed Clyde away to where ever it was he took him at the end of their fights.

“I don’t like that, I don’t want to watch their fights anymore,” the big cat complained to his human.

Len soothed a hand over the cats head when he came with in reach, but kept his own eyes on the tv, even though the story had changed. His eyes intent, expression serious.

“Len?”

Len moved his hand to run under Chain’s head and scratch before he said, “we know Scarlet has some dealings with STAR labs...do you think they have anything that could stop him? Any type of counter measure that is.”

It took Chain a moment to answer beyond purring, but after a moment he said, “if they still have anyone that has brains...they might. But what kind of thing would they make to stop our soulmate? And how dare they make anything to Stop our soulmate!” Chain was growling at the end, actually growling. Offended on his soul’s behalf that someone would ever think to harm him.

Len ruffled his ears and turned the news off, standing.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m going to call in a favor and see what’s what in there and then get my hands on whatever it could be so that no one can hurt Scarlet...don’t give me that look. Fine, or Scarlet’s wolf, not that the mongrel deserves my attentions, and yes, I know he’s a part of my soul, but he tried to keep my soulmate from me,” Len said as he turned away from Chain and pulled a burner phone from a drawer.

“You old softy,” Chain chirped at him.

Len flipped the cat off and turned his attention to his call, “it’s me, I need you to tell me what weapon like items STAR labs might have that are vaguely new and then if you can get them out. ...Yes, I know what that will cost you, I know what it will cost me, too. Can you do it? Good. Text this number when you have more information and I’ll send you an address.”

Len tossed the burner on the nearest soft-ish surface before he turned back to Chain, “Done and done.”

“Easy-easy”

=========================================================

After Barry was finished with his most recent run in (that’s still not funny Nor) with Clyde, and whisking him away to someplace neutral so that the police wouldn’t get him and he wouldn’t spill the beans on Barry’s identity, he’d run back to his apartment to find it blissfully the way he’d left it.

He’d flopped straight down onto his sofa and gone right to sleep and nothing Nor could do would wake him.

Nor huffed, hopped up on his legs, rearranged himself so that he could be draped over most of his exhausted human and joined him in the land of dreams. Neither of them set the alarm clock or remembered to plug in Barry’s phone.

(By the time Eddie, of all people, came knocking on Barry’s door, Simon Stagg had already been attacked once and the bull pen had placed bets to see if Barry had finally offed himself with his own clumsiness. Joe and Singh had not been amused when they’d gotten wind of that. Singh had started grilling all of them to see if they would even know where to look while Joe had quietly sent Eddie to Barry’s apartment, in the hopes the young man was still there.)

Barry woke up to heavy knocking on his door and the sound of Eddie’s voice calling out for proof of life. Barry tapped the home button on his phone, only to find it dead and then cast around for the time as he got up to let Eddie in.

Nor unhelpfully calling out, “it’s 4 in the afternoon!”

Barry opened the door, not looking to Eddie, but to Nor exclaiming, “Why the hell didn’t you wake me up?!”

“I really hope you’re talking to your familiar right now,“ Eddie said, but it sounded like he was holding back laughter.

“Eddie!” Barry jumped to the side to let him in and closed the door behind him. “How much trouble am I in?”

“A lot, but Singh might take it down a notch since you aren’t actually dead in a ditch somewhere. Forget an alarm last night?” Eddie said, no longer able to fight the smile from taking over his face.

Barry dragged a hand down his own face and sighed, “it was a surprisingly long night. A...friend called out of the blue and insisted I hang out with him. No wasn’t an answer I could tell him.” Barry shrugged with a what-can-you-do expression and hand gesture and turned to head deeper into his apartment to get dressed for work.

“This friend of yours forced you to go out?” Eddie asked and remained silent for a moment before he said, “he doesn’t force you to do anything you don’t really want to right? Is he forcing himself on you?”

“What?!” Barry said, his head coming out of the bathroom door, toothpaste foam spraying a bit. Barry ducked back in and cleaned up before coming back out. “My friend is admittedly a dick, but we’re literally just going out and playing games all night long. He’s like a big kid when his older brother isn’t around...ugh, he’s probably more of a big kid when his brother is around.”

Eddie visibly relaxed, “ok, Barry, ok. Now shoo, we need to get going.” Eddie flapped his arms at Barry and he turned to go into his room and get dressed out of yesterday’s clothes.

“Weather jerk is going to be unbearable when Big Brother gets back,” Nor said from his spot on the bed.

Barry sighed and whispered, “Cisco wants to call him Weather Wizard, not Jerk, so stop calling him that or I’m going to call him that in front of one of them and then I’m the one that’s going to get yelled at.”

“Nor no”

“That’s not how that works!” Barry said exasperatedly. He finished getting dressed throwing dark looks at Nor, who looked far too pleased with himself.

Eddie was still smiling when they got back out to the living room, “What’s not how that works?”

Barry smacked his hand to his face and groaned while Nor barked out a laugh.

“I like this one, you should try harder to be friends with him,” Nor said as he went up to nose around Eddie without touching him.

Eddie’s back went straight and he looked around and blinked, “I know you have some strange experiments in your lab sometimes, but do you have one going here right now?”

Barry tipped his head to the side and looked at him for a moment and then speed-glanced at Nor.

“Why do you ask? Do you feel creeped out?”

“No, I actually feel happier than I did a moment ago. It was such a strange feeling to suddenly come over me,” Eddie said and looked around again.

Nor moved to sit directly next to him and lifted his paw and held it over Eddie’s foot long enough for Barry to realize what he was going to do. Wolf and human scowled at each other while Eddie was still trying to figure it out when Nor brought his paw down.

Eddie’s back went ram-rod straight, coming completely out of the slouch he’s been in, and he looked right down at Nor.

“Did your familiar dump all of their points into charisma, because I’ve never felt so smug in my life, and I have the strangest feeling that something cold is touching my foot,” Eddie said, looking thunderstruck.

Two sets of jaws dropped open and stared at the detective. Barry blinked at him, not entirely sure he knew what to say. He’s never really thought about Nor’s charisma, they’d been together since the start and if they wanted to could talk the other into anything. Like that damn toy store in Keystone!

Nor pulled away from Eddie and went right to Barry and put his muzzle into his human’s hand, to which Barry promptly started petting it soothingly.

Eddie blinked back at Barry and realized something, “they’d never done that before and neither of you were prepared for my reaction?”

Barry swallowed and shook his head. Could Nor do that to others? If yes, was it only people that Barry knew, or could it be strangers?

Barry was going to have to figure out how to test this now.

“Not right this second, preferably not ever,” he heard Nor say softly.

Barry quickly bent down and pressed his face to the wolfs, “I just want to point out that you started it.”

(Eddie stared at Barry as he and his familiar, he’d had no idea it was that big, had a moment.)

After Barry was ready, they left to get into Eddie’s car and head back to the precinct. The scene there was almost as Eddie has described it, though many of the officers and detectives had been subdued and it seemed to just be Joe who still had enough wind in his sails to be upset about them placing bets about Barry’s life.

Singh spotted the two men and motioned for them to follow him into his office, and he made some bizarre hand gesture which Barry took to mean ‘without Joe noticing.’

Eddie stayed in between Barry and Joe and they stayed at his back as they made it to the office, Eddie pushing Barry in at the last second as one of the detectives got wise to what the pair was up to and started to point it out. Fortunately Joe just spoke over them, probably thinking it was some kind of distraction.

Once inside the office, Singh said, in no uncertain terns, “sit,” and both men did because Barry was sure he was talking to him and that Eddie sat to be on the safe side of the captain.

“Mr. Allen, care to tell me why no one was able to get a hold of you until Detective Thawn went and literally collected you? Your phone wasn’t even going to voice mail!” Singh said, his aggravation showing through at the end.

“A friend insisted I be out late last night, sir, and when I got back I forgot to set all of my alarms and I didn’t plug my phone in to charge so the battery died over night. I don’t know what to say, I know that I was doing better about being on time, but even my familiar didn’t wake up at his normal time this morning, and he’s who normally get’s me here on time,” Barry said, wringing his hands a bit, though he had to actively remember not to do it at any speed but human.

Nor moved from sitting next to him to in front of him so that Barry could rest his hand on his head, to help him stay calm, and not give his speed away.

Singh quirked an eye brow and shook his head, “you had better be glad that your track record has been getting better or this conversation would be going in a much different direction, Allen. Though this friend of yours...is he a...fair weather friend, or does he have a more stormy past?”

Barry had to tap into his speed so that he could stare slack-jawed at Singh for what he felt was an appropriate length of time, because shit.

==============================================================

Len had to wait to receive a certain package, but after that it didn’t take long for Len, Lisa and Mick to find Clyde, the idiot wasn’t exactly laying low in between his very public confrontations with the Flash. Len had made sure to tell his friend and sister the “name” of his soulmate when he’d gotten back home several days prior. They had not been amused with “The Flash” or “Scarlet” or “Red” but for now they had agreed to live with it…for now.

Len had seen the news story about Simon Stagg being attacked and knew that Barry was most likely going to get involved with that mess, either as a CSI or as his alter ego, so he wanted to get this Mardon business over with so that it would be one less thing for Scarlet to worry about. He sighed and shook his head, Mick glancing over at him, and he just shook his head again. He really hoped the younger Mardon could be talked into his crew with only slight manhandling. Mick had lifted a van for the nights festivities just in case.

The bar that they had found Clyde at irked Len as it was one of his favorite haunts. Saints and Sinners should not be sullied by the likes of any fool that had so much heat coming down on them. Len slipped his hand into the back of his jacket, felt Chain at his leg and opened the door to the dive bar.

It wasn’t hard to find Clyde Mardon, holding court near the booths and talking loudly to anyone that was near enough to listen, a girl on either side. Len and company when to the bar first and let the bartender know that they were there. The simple nod let the trio know it was appreciated that they didn’t just go up and start something with Clyde.

For his part, Clyde was going on about, “me ’n the Flash, we’re like gods in this city. It’s such a pity that he’s on the wrong side because we could own this town! But he’s the only one that can even hope to keep up with us and it would just be so boring with out him to be our jester when we eventually hold court…”

Mick put his hand on Len’s shoulder and Lisa reached out to take his arm. Both knew that it must hurt to hear your soulmate being spoken about in such a way.

“He’s full of hot air, Len, don’t loose your cool now, not when you’re here to cool /him/ down!” Chain hissed, ears back and prowling back and forth in front of Len.

Len sneered at the younger man, shook the restraining arms off of himself and straightened his jacket, a new blue one he was testing out, and then took a breath. He looked down at Chain and waited, the big cat continue to move back and forth for a moment longer before shifting and moving closer to Clyde’s group, Len and company following.

They stopped just at the edge of Clyde little cluster and waited, Len wondered if the small time crook even knew who he was, if he even ran in the same circles as Len himself did. If he didn’t, what was he doing daring to play bank robber with Len’s own soulmate!

Chain hip-checked him and Len refocused his eyes onto Clyde, the younger man clearly starring at him. Len smirked and spread his hands out. He didn’t care if he’d missed what Clyde had said.

“He asked what you ‘old geezers’ wanted,” Chain unhelpfully supplied.

“We want you, Clyde,” Len said, not letting his annoyance at the taunt get out. “We heard you’re pretty handy to have around when the heat comes down and I’ve been working on plans for something big.”

“Yea, and who the hell are you that I should even care?” Clyde sneered back.

“Snart,” was all Len said because if his own reputation didn’t precede him...then his old man’s would clear out any one else.

True enough Clyde’s peanut gallery beat a hasty retreat once they realized who he was or who he was related to. Len’s smirk turned into a sneer of his own. He hated his father for never being able to tell who these low life’s were more afraid of. One day they would only know about Len.

Clyde blinked in surprise at the now vacant area around him and looked back at Len, “if I’m not working alone, then I only work with my brother. And you sure as hell don’t look like Mark.”

“Mardon the elder hasn’t been seen since since the accelerator accident, believe me, it’s better to work with me than to work solo the rest of your life,” Len said.

“Mardon the elder isn’t dead,” a new voice said from behind them.

Only Lisa turned to look though, Len and Mick keeping their eyes on Clyde, “and why do you say that, handsome?”

“Because I’m Mark Mardon.”

Len felt Chain press the top of his head, hard, into his thigh. He had to fight to keep his balance. What was going on here? Both Mardon’s survived being struck out of the sky by a lightning bolt and then falling back to Earth in a small plane? This was just getting too unreal for Len to believe.

“You expect us to believe you’re the real Mark Mardon?” Mick asked with heavy skepticism.

The dark hair man held his hand up and a small lightning storm formed in it, “I do.”

Chain’s fur was standing on end and his ears were flat back again, “I really don’t like that they BOTH have weather powers. Whose to say that they don’t strike Red down with lightning strikes? Or that Clyde didn’t tell Mark who our soulmate was!” His claws were digging into the floor boards closest to Len’s feet, long gouges slowly becoming evident.

Len rolled his head from looking over his shoulder at Mark back to looking at Clyde, “does your brother know who Scarlet is?”

It was said so blasé that it was clear that Clyde almost bit off a retort that he didn’t know what Len meant but he stopped, mouth open and eyes wide.

“Whose ‘Scarlet’, Clyde?” Mark asked as he circled around to stand next to his brother.

Len glanced around the bar and saw that everyone was gone now, including the bartender. Probably for the best, this might get messy if both Mardon’s were as unpredictable as Clyde.

“It’s the Flash that I’ve been facing off against,” Clyde said, looking more closely at Len, but not offering up anymore information than that.

Mark looked more directly at him, “and why would Snart think that you know who he is?”

“No idea, Red just shows up when I rob those banks, that’s all,” Clyde tried to deflect.

Len’s smirk started to come back, not only had he not told his brother, he didn’t want to let his brother in on it, he seemed to want to keep the knowledge to himself...or to keep Barry to himself. Len didn’t like it at all if it was the latter.

“But he whisks you away from the crime scenes, after he takes the loot from you! He’s not letting the pigs get you any more than he’s letting you keep the loot. He’s walking a fine line there if he’s there to stop you from steeling but then being your means of escape,” Mark said and advanced on his brother. “What aren’t you telling me!”

“What’s it matter! Red is...” Clyde started to shout back and then he was gone, and Len knew he was being sped away at the same time.

The lights and colors that were warping around him were disorienting and he was certain that if he wasn’t Barry’s soulmate that the end of this run would end differently.

The sudden stop had him wobbling, Chain mercifully right next to him, though he wasn’t sure how, the cat had never run as fast as Len was sure they had just gone. He looked around and saw Clyde on his stomach handing off of a low bed, groaning a bit.

In the next instant there was a crack of thunder and a quick circuit of lightning before Mark and Mick materialized from nothing and the lightning was gone again. That left Lisa then for Barry to be going to get.

Mick looked fine, but Mark was dashing for what Len could only assume was the bathroom. The clatter of pots and pans let him know it was the kitchen sink Mark had found first though.

“Come on, man!” Clyde groaned loudly when he heard it too.

Both Lisa and the Flash appeared the instant after Clyde spoke and Lisa was set down near a doorway that she pushed open without hesitation, and that did turn out to be the bathroom. Scarlet followed her in and held her hair out of the way while she dealt with having been carried at super speed.

Len looked around the room while everyone else got their acts together and his sister and soulmate came out of the bathroom. His eyes landed on a man dressed in all black, tinted to a chair and unconscious. He quirked and eyebrow and turned back to look at the bathroom door.

“Care to let us know what’s going on, Scarlet?” He called out.

He watched as Barry helped Lisa out of the bathroom and leaned her against the wall just as Mark was coming back into the room.

Len watched /his/ Scarlet weigh his options before flashing forward and moving Len himself closer to Clyde, making them as equal as he could with Clyde still laying belly down on the bed.

Scarlet addressed both of them when he said, “that man over there is Danton Black and he’s like us. Simon Stagg is the reason that his wife is dead but I can’t let him keep trying for revenge, but the police also won’t be able to hold Black either. I don’t know what to do or were to take him.

“Snart said he was going to form some kind of...Rogues Gallery with Clyde so I did a grid search of the city with all my tech turned off until I found you at that bar. Please, help me?”

Well, Len thought, shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you all in March, Kitties!!!!
> 
> And to my beta reader, [BurnsLikeIce](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurnsLikeIce/pseuds/BurnsLikeIce), as a reminder, Barry is the Enterprise and runs at warp speed. All those elongated stars~ (Barry would be so pleased to be compared to the Enterprise I feel)


	8. One day at a Time...Sometimes Literally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mark is still an ass, and he's making Barry's and Len's lives difficult at their first run down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *comes sliding in at nearly the last moment looking sleep deprived and anxious*  
> It's still March! This counts, right?!  
> To whomever keeps leaving the guest kudos, I love you because you reminded me that holy shit, March was almost over! o___o

Observational notes, B. Allen:  
While Snart said that Chain couldn’t move as fast as me on his own, when I grabbed Snart and Clyde Chain ran at my speed right next to me, pacing me just fine. Makes me wonder if Clyde’s familiar was able to keep pace with me, or Mark’s, or Snart’s associates, or even Black’s familiar so that none of them separated from them.  
I know Nor and I are kind of an anomaly with being able to be so far apart from each other, but can other familiars be separated from their humans with no ill side effects? There’s just no way to test this!

~~~

Having spent a good part of his night fighting a clone army, and not even the fun kind with Star Wars references, Barry was at his wits end by the time he knocked out the real Danton Black, thus knocking out all of his clones.

Barry could hear Cisco and Wells telling him to bring him back to the Labs, but what if he multiplied to the point that he overwhelmed them? He would just get out and go after Stagg again, and that would bring everything right back to square one.

Barry brought his hands up to his ear and chest lightning bolts and said, “I’m sorry guys, but I have another idea,” and turned off his comms and the tracker on his chest.

Barry picked Black up and streaked out of Stagg Industries and went right to one of Clyde’s safe houses, tying him to a chair and hoping he wouldn’t wake up before he got back...”I am a terrible CSI”. 

After that he collected Nor and dropped him off and then started his search for Snart and Clyde.

Barry was almost at the end of the city when he saw Snart through the window of a bar called Saint’s and Sinners. He ran in and realized Clyde was there too...along with his brother. How long has Mark Mardon been back in town?! Whatever, he’d deal with it later, Black could be waking up any second and he apparently had more people to move than he was expecting. Who are the two people standing with Snart? Questions for later, Snart and Clyde first! How heavy can two grown men be at super speed?

Surprisingly not that heavy at super speed, thank whatever speed gods there are, Barry thought as he ran back and grabbed Mark and the man that had been standing with Snart. Snart’s associate must have more muscle hidden on his frame, because Barry definitely felt the difference in carrying the two pairs.

He dropped them off in the middle of the apartment and made his third and final trip back for the woman who had been standing with Snart, with his luck she was probably the most important one of the group, no way was he taking the chance of leaving her behind.

He came to a stop near the doorway that he knew lead to the small apartments bathroom and the woman quickly pushed inside. Barry followed, pulling her hair out of the way as she worshiped at the alter of the porcelain gods. He was so glad he couldn’t get drunk anymore, that was not something he missed.

He heard noises behind him, but stayed with the woman, knowing Nor would called out movements if he needed to.

“Mardon the elder is puking in the kitchen,” the wolf said as soon as Barry had had the thought of his familiar. He sighed internally, glad only Snart would hear it if Nor had been loud enough.

“Clyde is still face down on the bed, Leonard is looking around the place and Leonard’s partner is just standing there kind of dazedly,” Nor continued.

The last one had Barry turning to look at the wolf just as the woman was moving to stand, so he continued to hold her hair out of the way as she rummaged for something to rinse her mouth out with, all the while still not acknowledging him.

Barry side eyed her before looking back at Nor and whispering, “the partner you were so pissy about?”

“That’d be the one.”

Barry looked out into the room as best he could and then back to Nor, “do you think he told him who I am?”

“Honey, Lenny wouldn’t out his soulmate even if his life depended on it, but he didn’t have a very long list of potential candidates before he went off and met you. It wasn’t exactly rocket science for Mick and I to guess it,” the woman said. “But he thinks we don’t know because he only told us Scarlet and Red, so...”

Barry startled and stared at her reflection in the mirror, horror written over the exposed part of his face.

“Don’t worry cutie, we’re not about to out you either. Do you know how long my brother has been pining for his soulmate?” she gently pulled her hair away from Barry and walked into the main room, rejoining everyone else, forcing Barry to follow her.

“Care to let us know what’s going on, Scarlet?” Snart asked as Barry checked to make sure his soulmate’s /sister/ was ok. Couldn’t Snart have been more subtle? Barry hadn’t let on that he had found /his/ soulmate yet!

Barry looked over to Snart and Clyde, they were too far apart and each needed to be the center of attention, he wanted to face-palm. Instead he moved Snart as close to Clyde as he could without having him on top of the other man. He didn’t want to deal with that fight.

Barry took a deep breath and then addressed both men, “that man over there is Danton Black and he’s like us. Simon Stagg is the reason that his wife is dead but I can’t let him keep trying for revenge, but the police also won’t be able to hold Black either. I don’t know what to do or were to take him.

“Snart said he was going to form some kind of...Rogues Gallery with Clyde so I did a grid search of the city with all my tech turned off until I found you at that bar. Please, help me?”

He could see the moment Snart wanted to face-palm himself because Chain actually did plant his face on the floor and yowl mournfully. Clyde physically ran a hand over his face.

“You want me to work with Snart!” Clyde finally said, indignant.

“Well, you aren’t going to be able to have a monopoly on Scarlet’s time any more, so if you work with me, then you get to see him whenever /I/ set up a play date,” Snart snarked back, unhelpfully Barry felt.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Clyde asked as he finally pushed himself up and got off the bed.

“It means,” Snart started, only to be interrupted by Barry. 

“It means that he’s put forth a difficult kind of deal than you did. It also wasn’t really one that I could say no too.”

There was a beat of silence and then literal thunder rumbled. 

“What deal do you have with this kid, Clyde?” Mark growled “and why did you lie to me about it!”

Clyde got to his feet and pushed Barry behind him, “you were who the hell knows where and didn’t give a damn enough to say when you’d be back, so I went out and did my own thing. I found Red, I made the deal with! Why should you get to share any of that when you left /me/!”

The sky outside the windows had gone dark and now Barry did run his hand down his face. He saw the incredulous look from Snart out of the corner of his eye as he moved closer to Clyde and smacked him upside the back of his head. 

“Calm down, Clyde,” he said with a sigh. 

Clyde’s hand snapped to the back of his head and he twisted around to look at Barry with a look of betrayal, “dude, why would you do me like that in front of Mark!”

Barry’s eyes flicked at human speed to the window and back and he watched Clyde turn fully to look, hand still rubbing the back of his head.

“Not my clouds.”

“The hell you mean ‘not your clouds’?” Mick asked.

“Can this stop being a pissing contest between you boys so we can get back to how Lenny was starting a crew, going to bring Clyde into it, and Flashy here just brought him another candidate?” Lisa cut in.

Barry was getting Lisa cookies and flowers...after he corrected her about Black being here for Snart’s new crew.

“Scarlet, we haven’t even had our deal that long and you’re already bringing me presents,” Snart said as he cocked his head to the side, truly daring Barry to contradict him in front of everyone, fine then.

“You or Clyde, whoever can handle him better. Clyde and Mark now too apparently both have powers. What do you have Snart?” Barry challenged back.

There was silence for a beat before Mark stage whispered, “ok, he’s a little shit like you, I can see why you’re not sharing you’re toys.”

“I can bite for you,” both Nor and Chain said at the same time and Barry had to look at both of them because what? How could Snart’s familiar do that? Were they like Barry and Nor where Barry touching Nor meant Nor could touch others?

“Let’s not be hasty,” Snart said, bringing Barry’s attention back to him. “I’m still full of surprises even if I don’t have any powers.” The smirk that spread across his face as he reached for the object at the small of his back was worthy of a villain from a silent movie, and the gun he pulled out was something E.E. Smith would have dreamed up for his insane future stories.

“I can handle all of you powered people just fine with this.”

“A gun you got from a carnival?” Mark snorted, not bothering to cover his smile for the turn of events.

Mick and Lisa moved to flank Snart and Barry wasn’t sure if he would move or stay in between Snart and the Mardon’s. 

The sudden groan from the other end of the room was Barry’s answer and he sped over to knock Black out again, but as he did something extremely cold hit one of his feet, bringing him up short and forcing him to stop, wobbling on the spot.

“You need to cool down, Scarlet. Let him wake up so that we can see what he’s like,” Snart said, smirk and a new pair of goggles on his face.

They’d all moved closer to were Barry and Black were, even the Mardon’s and Barry was literally iced to the floor. Snart had shot him, immobilized him! This is not what Barry thought when he had said Barry had needed to cool down.

Lightning sparked in his eyes and then all around him just as Black was looking up at everyone.

“Where am I? Where’s Stagg!” He snarled as he started to pull on his restraints.

“You’re in my apartment, that Stagg guy isn’t here. The Flash only brought you,” Clyde said.

Black head snapped up and looked at Clyde and then looked around for the Flash. “Why did you stop me! He took everything from me!” He shouted at Barry.

But now everyone else’s attention was also on Barry and they could see the lightning racing all over him and they could see just how upset he looked for having been “cooled down.”

“Killing Stagg won’t bring your wife back, and if he’s alive we can prove that he stole your research, research that could have saved her, and that he did so knowingly. He’ll go to jail!”

“He should be put in a grave!” Black snarled back as he created two clones to help with removed the restraints.

The others jumped back at the site of Black’s powers just as Barry was able to melt the ice enough to break free, bolt forward, knock Black out again causing both clones to drop like rocks, and then then pivoted and dashed to Snart and hauled him up by the collar of his jacket, pulling him off the floor entirely.

“Why did you stop me from knocking him back out! He could have literally created over a hundred clones in the blink of an eye if he’d had the presence of mind to do so! Would your...your Cold gun have been any good then if you didn’t even have the room to bring it up to aim? Or what if they forced your arm around to aim at Mick or Lisa! What would you have done then!” Barry shouted at him. “He doesn’t care about his clones, he could have had them force your around to aim at /me/ and ice more than just my foot. What would you have done then, Leonard?”

Barry dropped him back on to his feet, but made sure he was stable before flashing back over to Black and making sure his restraints were still secure.

“Why would it matter at all if you off the cities wanna be hero?” Mark asked. A put upon expression on his face for having had to bare witness to that little tantrum.

“You made a deal with Red after me...you told him you’d bring me into /your/ crew because I wouldn’t get as much time, but I already had a deal not to out him to the world. But if I run with you then my deal with him is still mostly the same. He brings all of us to my place to have this chat and tries to down play you until all that...” Clyde says looking back and forth between Barry himself and where Snart is still standing.

Barry has to give him some credit, when he’s not mad with his powers he can be pretty insightful. He just wished now wasn’t one of those times. He didn’t want more people knowing yet that he and Snart were...

“Soulmates,” Clyde said, “Snart is Red’s soulmate. Only answer. Red’s familiar is an ass, Snart is an ass, so there.”

“Your logic sucks, baby brother. How can you possibly know what the Flash’s familiar is like?”

A chill suddenly ran up everyone’s spines, an uneasiness that had no right being there given present company.

Barry saw Snart look over to Nor, where the wolf was growling, ears back and hackles up. All his attention on Mark but everyone else feeling it too.

“I don’t like Mardon the Older,” Nor said through clenched teeth, hackles up and ears back.

Barry looked around the room and saw that the tension was ratcheting up, he made a wish and a prayer to whomever might be listening and softly snapped his fingers. Nor turned his head immediately and watched as Barry pointed to his own foot.

Nor thought the boy had lost it when he remembered what had happened with Eddie, “I just want you to know that I hate you,” he said before moving closer to Mark.

Before touching him he called out, “Chain come here!” And the cheetah obeyed, clearly curious about what was going to happen.

Snart was too if his raised eye brow was any indication.

“This is bullshit Clyde, just tell me what you know on Red over there and we can use that info, together, to make sure that he doesn’t double cross us! You alone might screw it up,” Mark was still saying peevishly to Clyde, not letting him get a word in.

Nor raised his paw up and brought it down on Mark’s foot with all his anger at the front of his mind, how much he didn’t like that his human was the one being threatened.

Mark’s jaw immediately snapped shut and he shuddered as a chill ran up his back.

Chain’s eyes went wide in fascination and without a second thought and before his own human could stop him, he brought his claws down onto Mark’s leg. Only enough that it would be felt and to rip his pants if it did anything at all.

And it did, four slashes appeared on Mark’s leg and he jumped, unknowingly pulling away from both familiars.

“What the hell is going on?!” He said, voice shaky as the blood drained from his face.

“Told you Red’s familiar is an asshole.”

Mark gaped open mouthed at his brother for a moment before, “familiars can only touch their human’s soulmate! And I sure as hell can’t see it so I’m not Red’s soulmate.”

“No, you’re not,” Snart said.

Barry turned to face him, trying to convey in a look that it would be a terrible idea for him to out them, Snart just smirked.

“Scarlet is all mine, if you try to touch him one way or another then bad things will happen to you. Like that,” he said as he gestured to Mark’s leg.

“So you are like us!” Clyde said turning to face him too. “You’re a telekinetic! That’s so cool!”

Barry really wanted to slap his hand to his face at that, Nor and Chain both hit their heads on surfaces around them. One of which was Barry’s leg. He reached down to pet who he thought was Nor and instead found rounded ears instead of pointed ones, Chain then. He shrugged mentally and kept at it.

“I’m full of surprises,” Snart told Clyde, though he was clearly watching Barry with his own familiar.

————————————————————————————————————

How was that mongrel able to /touch/ Mark and /then/ how was Chain able to touch him? Chain can normally only touch other’s when Len himself was touching them. Len was going to have to corner Scarlet and get some answers about that one, and soon.

As it was Len was slightly distracted by Barry petting Chain when the the cat had gone to the closest human it had access to for comfort. A quick glance at the wolf and Len wasn’t sure if it was smug or as upset as Len by this turn of events. Barry should only comfort his dumb dog and Len should be the one making Chain feel better.

Len would talk to his cheetah about it later.

“Well, move something else then if you’re so full of ‘surprises’,” Mark said with actual hand quotes. 

Clyde rolled his eyes at his brother, Mick actually reached for his own gun and Lisa was...looking at what Scarlet’s hand was doing to thin air. She knew exactly how tall Chain was after so long together, she was going to be intolerable after this.

“You can’t just tell some one to use their powers,” Scarlet said, and bless his heart, he hardly sounded like he was lying for Len, then again, he had stolen before so maybe lying wasn’t something that would be difficult for him.

“Scarlet’s right, Mark, and why would I want to anyway. Just proved it to you anyway, didn’t I?” Len smirked, trying to goad the older brother. Scarlet only wanted Clyde on his crew, but now that Mark was in the picture Len knew it was a packaged set, which was unfortunate.

“Then what’s the cold gun for?” Mark challenged back.

Len brought the gun up and rested it on his shoulder, the business end well away from the back of his own head.

“This old thing? It’s to cool hot heads down. Don’t need the heat from CCPD coming down on me or whatever crews I put together, and if this doesn’t cool something down then this,” Len paused as he pulled his real gun out of a shoulder holster, “this will cool anyone down permanently, because when you’re out, you’re out.”

“Excuse us for a second,” Scarlet said and was suddenly in front of Len, his hands slamming down onto his shoulder and hip, but just before he moved them he turned to Mick and said, “make sure Black stayed knocked out,” and then he turned to Lisa, “you’re in charge,” and in a flash of bright colors they were on the top of a building, and Len didn’t think it was Clyde’s apartment building.

Len looked around and saw Chain was with them, but not Nor and Scarlet was still standing close.

“Something you’d like to say, Scarlet?” Len taunted, leaning in a bit closer.

He was pleased when Barry didn’t back down, especially after how the boy had reacted when he’d found him in his apartment several days ago. Skin tight leather apparently did him wonders in the confidence department. Len filed that away for later...he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with that information, but all information was useful eventually, most of the time.

“You can’t kill anyone.”

Len blinked at him and pulled back a bit, knowing that they could both hear Chain and his chittering laugh next to them did not help.

“Are you going to stop me, Barry? Every. Single. Time? I’ve killed a lot of people in my life. I’m a thief and a murderer and a liar, do you think you really can?”

“I thought you were an expert thief? If you’re supposedly so good, why do you have to kill anyone, how do they see you at all if you’re so good? Or are you just sloppier than you like to admit?”

Len frowned, no one was going to call him anything less than he was and his plans were damn good.

“What do you want, Barry? I have a new toy and I can up my game and it’ll let me keep up with powered humans, I told you I’d find a way.”

“Don’t kill anyone. Up your game without having to up your body count if you are as good as Nor told me you were. Bring Clyde and Mark into your crew, figure out how to help me with Black and I’ll be there for all of your heists just like I am for all of Clyde’s. But if anyone dies, Snart, soulmate or not, I’ll run you right to CCPD myself and live with the consequences,” Barry said leaning in the distance that Len had pulled away.

“I am good enough not to have to kill, but what am I really getting out of this other than dumb and dumber and anger management? Will these play dates really be worth it, /Barry/?” Len said leaning back in and getting right in his face about it. He was certainly not going to blink first about this.

“What do you want?”

“The Kahndaq Dynasty Diamond.”

Len watched as Scarlet’s brain worked at super speed, lightning literally visible in his eyes.

“If I use my speed then the city will know I did it, and I’m work to prove that I’m a hear and not a villain, that would ruin it.”

“I know, which is why I don’t want you to use your speed. I know now that my first go at the diamond is going to be stopped by you, I’ve already taken that into account. Not even going to have my new toy with me for it, don’t want the world to know about it too early now, do we? No, I want you to help me get it after it’s in the museum. Just me ‘n you, in ‘n out. Won’t even trip any alarms or alert any guards, and you already know how not to leave evidence behind,” Len smirked at him.

He watched Scarlet flounder for a moment, torn between stop and go. In all honesty he’d agree to the kids terms even if he said no to the diamond heist, but he wanted to know how willing he was to work with his new soulmate.

Len felt pressure against his leg and looked down, Chain was leaning against him and while his ears weren’t flat back, they certainly weren’t up and alert either. He wasn’t a fan of this plan then. Len reached down and ran his hand over the cats head and scratched behind one of his ears.

“Not the diamond, but at some point in the future I will do a heist with you where it’s just you and I,” Barry said and he literally flashed his hands up, a quick arc of light following them. “Hear me out about my decision though. I’m most likely the CSI that will be called in to work the case and even at the best times I ramble. Most times everyone doesn’t pay attention to what I’m saying because their so used to it, but every now and then someone will ask me to repeat something, and if I end up rambling about something I shouldn’t know about just because I was actually there I might not be able to talk my way back out of it. I need to be a CSI so that I can prove that my dad is innocent and get him out of prison. The man in yellow killed my mom, I just need to find the proof.”

Len blinked at everything that Scarlet had essentially just rambled at him and then a slow smirk spread across his face, “so I get to have you all to my self at some later heist so long as you wont be the lead CSI on it the following day? I can make sure that doesn’t happen. And you will be telling me more about this man in yellow, but I think we aught to get back to the children before one of them does something drastic.”

Scarlet nodded and wrapped his arms back around Len, slower this time, almost like he was becoming skittish after having been so fierce with Len just a moment ago. Maybe it wasn’t skin tight leather that upped his confidence after all.

The run back was just as quick, and they found everyone now sitting down, looking nervous and not looking at each other. Black was still knocked out with Mick sitting closest to him, and there in the center was Nor. The wolf was looking pissed off, his head was hung low, his ears back, his hackles up, and his claws were trying to dig gouges into a floor he could effect until /something/ else happened.

Len quirked and eyebrow and gestured to Lisa.

“The boys got into another argument the moment Red whisked you away and wouldn’t listen to reason, and the longer it went on the creepier the room felt until I think all of our familiars forced us to separate and sit down. I know mine’s curled up in my lap and not doing well, can’t speak for the others.”

Clyde was just enough in Len’s line of sight that he was able to see him give Scarlet a truly sour look and watch him ‘make him stop.’ Len turned to face his soulmate and quirked both eyebrows at him.

“Nor’s done this to Clyde once before,” the kid said as softly as he could as he held his hand out slightly.

Len didn’t need to turn to know that Nor was coming over to him, he felt him brush against his leg as he saw him press his face into Scarlet’s hand. Immediately the tension on the room went down.

“Now that you’re all quiet and behaving...and know what will happen to either yourselves or your familiars if you don’t play nice, let’s talk about my new crew, my Rogues,” Len said as he spread his hands.

“What’s his part in all of this, then?” Mark asked, he sounded surly after having felt with Nor’s influence.

Len made a show of looking at his Scarlet, and glancing down at Nor and Chain, “villains need a hero to go up against, don’t they? The city has already seen Scarlet stop Clyde from robbing banks, though also being his getaway is going to have to change. Playing both sides so obviously can be a dangerous thing.”

“I’m not playing both side,” Scarlet huffed.

“No? You want the Mardon’s and my crew to join forces, you want that new crew to then somehow include Black over there, and I have a feeling he won’t be the last one either. There’s a missing piece to this puzzle of why you brought him along with you tonight. Care to share with the class?”

“I didn’t care for the alternatives.”

Len waited for more of an answer, but when it became obvious that he wasn’t going to get one he shrugged and turned to look back to Clyde.

“What do you say, Clyde, care to team up?”

Len watched as Clyde looked at his brother, looked at Barry and then looked at Len himself, “We come as a packaged set now that Mark’s back.”

“I’m well away that where one goes in this city, the other is sure to follow,” Len reply, his drawl unnecessarily thicker than it needed to be, just to piss them off.

“I’m not done playing with Red yet, so i’ll join you’re crew,” Clyde said as he pushed himself out of the chair he’d ended up in, Mark made a sour face but he stood as well and moved to stand behind Clyde, clearly backing his decision. 

“Does this mean the pissing contest is really over now?” Lisa asked from her own seat, “because we can’t keep knocking out sleeping beauty, as much as Mick likes it.”

“We have to figure out a way to get Simon Stagg to confess publicly and then show it to Black, show him that Stagg is ruined,” Scarlet said. “It won’t bring his wife back, and it might not be Stagg’s death, but it will make Stagg suffer longer than just beating him up and killing him would have.”

There was silence for a beat before Mick said, “are you sure he’s a hero, because that was kind of dark.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Dr. Harrison Wells rolled his motorized chair into Stagg industries long after the police had left and the clone bodies had seemingly vanished on their own. He was easily able to placate the hired bodyguards that had survived and still stood silently in the halls leading up to Simon’s office.

He rolled right in the office door to find Simon frantically moving about his desk, a manic look on his face.

“Good to see you still in the land of the living, Simon,” Harrison said, drawing Simon’s attention away from his work.

“Harrison, who let you in!” Stagg burst out a laugh. “Never mind, come look. It’s amazing! That man who fought off Black, the one that has been seen fighting the bank robber, he was here! And he really is as fast as all the eye witness reports say, it was astounding to watch! And if he can move at those speeds, just think of what else he might be able to do. Why, his cells could hold a whole host of scientific discoveries and breakthroughs that we haven’t even dreamed of yet!” Stagg turned his back on Wells and continued, “If only I could get my hands on him, even one sample could be amazing!”

Stagg didn’t see Well remove his glasses or slowly stand from his wheelchair, he did however, feel the hand land on his shoulder and force him to turn around. At first he looked down but then had to look up to meet Wells’ gaze, cold as if he had no soul at all.

“That young man is the Flash, and he is indeed a miracle, but you will never get to see it. Simon, you should have left it alone or left Black kill you.”

“How are you standing? Harrison, your legs, the particle accelerator!”

“It is a story you will never get to hear,” Wells said as he produced a knife from seemingly nowhere and pressed it quickly into Simon’s chest. “You won’t be around to the rest of anyone’s story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that this almost didn't make it "on time." My sunlight hours have not been as easy on me as I would have liked and the businesses my job has to interact with have...not had a lot of common sense lately.  
> Also found out I was approved to have imaging done on my back! Last year...and no one in the doctor's office knew, so now i have to get re-approved. I may yet find out what went wrong with my back. Eventually.
> 
> :D I'll try not to push it so close to 4 months next time. 3 should be 3, Thus June!


End file.
